University of Michigan-Flint Library
lilli I I 1 HI
4 9015 00122 6985
UNIVERSITY OF KICHIGAN-FLINT LIBRARY








A
HISTORY OF ORNAMENT



West Front of Reims Cathedral, 1208-1380


HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
BY
A. D. F. HAMLIN, A.M., L.H.D., A.I.A.
Professor or The History of Architecture in
Columbia University
WITH 400 ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
COOPER SQUARE PUBLISHERS, INC.
1973


Copyright, 1916, by
The Century Co.
Publish**, Octobtr, 1916
Originally Published 1916
Reprinted by Permission of Genevieve Karr Hamlin
Published 1973 by Cooper Square Publishers, Inc.
59 Fourth Avenue, New York, New York 10003
International Standard Book Number 0-8154-0450-6
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-92374
Printed in the United States of America



TO
MY STUDENTS
IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION
OF THEIR INTEREST AND DE-
VOTION WHICH FOR THIRTY-
THREE YEARS PAST HAVE
MADE TEACHING FOR ME
A CONTINUOUS PLEASURE





PREFACE
Books on ornament are so many that to add to their
number may seem at first sight a wholly superfluous
task. Yet in all the long lists of the bibliographies of
the subject there appears a singular lack of systematic
treatises on the history of the various styles which have
marked the growth and progress of decorative .art.
Elaborate compendiums of ornament grouped by styles
or by other categories are not wanting; the splendid
"Grammar of Ornament" of Owen Jones, and "Orna-
ment polychrome" of Racinet; the "Ornamentenschatz"
of Dolmetsch, the "Handbook of Ornament" of Franz
Sales Meyer, Speltz's "Styles of Ornament," and the
excellent plates of "Historic Ornament" published by
the Prang Educational Company, are examples of such
collections of ornament, all meritorious in various ways,
and all highly serviceable to students and decorators.
But in the whole catalogue of the Avery Library of Co-
lumbia University—the richest collection in this coun-
try of works on architecture and the allied arts—I have
found but two titles of systematic histories of ornament,
one in French and one in German; neither available for
those who read only English, and neither of them, even
for those who can read French or German, exactly suited
to the needs of the average English or American student
of architecture or decoration.
I have for years felt the need of some such text-book
vii


PREFACE
for students in my own courses in Columbia University
in the History of Ornament. Of the many works in Eng-
lishj French or German, mentioned above, which to any
extent recognize the historical element in the styles of
ornament, some are too expensive for student use; some
are too brief or too superficial in their text, some inade-
quate in their illustrations. In response to many ap-
peals from teachers in other institutions, from their stu-
dents and from my own, and with a view of meeting my
own needs in teaching, I have ventured on the task of
attempting such a systematic history of ornament. This
volume represents the first half of the work which I hope
to complete by a second volume, if this one shall meet
with the favor of the public. It is, however, complete
in itself, as it covers the ancient and medieval styles,
leaving the styles of the Renaissance, of modern times
and of the Orient, for the second volume.
The predominance of illustrations from architecture
is due not merely to the fact that these chapters are
based on lectures to architects; but also to the fact that
the styles are most clearly exhibited in the progress of
architecture as the "mistress art." It is hoped that the
"Books Recommended" will enable the reader to supply
for himself the illustrations from the other arts which
he finds lacking in this work.
With regard to the illustrations, I may say that the
majority are either from my own drawings or reproduced
directly from photographs. As they are presented
purely to illustrate the subject and not as models of
draftsmanship, I trust they will not be too severely
criticised on the technical side. The extreme small-
viii


PREFACE
ness of many of them has been made necessary by the
desire to keep the volume within modest limits of size
and price. For the same reason the number of plates
in color had to be restricted. Larger plates, larger
cuts and more of them, would have made the book bulky
and costly beyond measure, at least for student use.
I beg herewith to make my acknowledgments to all
who have helped me in preparing these illustrations:
especially to a number of my students, whose names
will be found in the List of Illustrations; to Messrs.
Chapman and Hall for the use of several illustrations
from Ward's "Historic Ornament"; to Messrs. Long-
mans, Green & Co. for the use of a cut of capitals from
my "History of Architecture"; to the Prang Educa-
tional Company, for the use of a number of illustrations
in color from their "Plates of Historic Ornament"; to
the publishers of the "Architectural Record" for several
cuts from various issues; to the "American Architect"
for permission to use a number of my own illustrations
in various issues between 1898 and 1901; to the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York, for permission to
reproduce a number of the Museum's official photo-
graphs of casts and models in the Willard Architectural
Collection; to the house of Bruno Hessling for permis-
sion to reproduce a number of illustrations from Meyer's
Handbook of Ornament, and my Fig. 332 from Speltz,
Styles of Ornament; to my daughter Genevieve for
two drawings; and to the officers of the Avery Library
for much valuable assistance cheerfully rendered. I
have tried to give credit, in my List of Illustrations, for
all such assistance, and to indicate the sources of the il-
ix


PREFACE
lustrations as far as possible. Some of them, however,
were drawn so long ago, or have come into my posses-
sion from sources so long forgotten, that I have not been
able in every case to do this. I trust I have not tres-
passed on any one's proprietary rights in any case.
Many of my own drawings are re-interpretations of sub-
jects appearing in other works; in such cases I have,
where possible, indicated the source by the words "after"
so-and-so.
There are two classes of figures besides the Plates I
to XXII: those in the text, and those gathered into
pages distributed through the text. To aid the reader
in finding the references to illustrations, I have in the
text referred to all of the first class,—those in the text—
by the abbreviation "Fig." or "Figs."; while the word
"Figure" refers always to illustrations grouped in
pages; the page-reference is sometimes added.
I desire to express my appreciation of the cordial and
generous cooperation of The Century Co. in the prepa-
ration of this work.
I commend this fruit of my labors to the kind con-
sideration of teachers and students of architecture and
decorative design, and to designers generally, with the
hope that it will be found to meet their needs and prove
useful both in the class-room and the studio.
A. D. F. Hamlin.
Christmas Cove, Maine,
August 14, 1916
x


CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Introductory 3
II Primitive and Savage Ornament .... 20
III Egyptian Ornament 32
IV Chaldea and Assyria 55
V West Asiatic Ornament: Phrygia, Lydia and
Persia 65
VI Pre-Hellenic Ornament: JSgean and Asiatic 73
VII Greek Ornament, I 88
VIII Greek Ornament, II 110
IX Etruscan and Roman Ornament, I . . . . 127
X Roman Ornament, II 151
XI Pompehan Ornament 170
XII Early Christian or Basilican Ornament . . 187
XIII Byzantine Ornament 206
XIV Romanesque Ornament: I, Italian and French 234
XV Romanesque Ornament: II. Anglo-Norman,
German, Spanish and Scandinavian . . . 266
XVI Gothic Ornament: Structural 282
XVII Gothic Carving and Industrial and Accessory
Arts 308
XVIII Particular Schools op Gothic Ornament: I.
French and English 331
XIX Particular Schools op Gothic Ornament: II.
German, Spanish, Italian 366
Index 393





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
In the following List, the sources of the illustrations are indicated wher-
ever possible. A number of them, however, have been made from drawings,
tracings or engravings in the Author's possession from sources he has been
unable to identify. All illustrations not otherwise designated are from
original drawings by the Author. Wherever these have been based on or
suggested by illustrations in other works, the fact is expressed by "A. after"
followed by the source from which the drawing has been derived or on which
it is based. Many cuts are from drawings by students of Columbia Uni-
versity; these are indicated by the initials C. U., followed in some cases by
the student's name. It has not been possible to trace the source of all these
drawings. Other abbreviations and references are as follows: A. = Author;
A. C. H. = Haddon, Evolution in Art; A. M. N. H. = American Museum
of Natural History, New York; Arch. Rec. = Architectural Record (N. Y.);
A. p. T.=>L'Art pour Tous; Bond = Introduction to English Church
Architecture; Colling = Gothic Foliage, Gothic Ornaments; F. & L. =
Furtwangler und Losehke, Mykenische Vasen; F. P. = Flinders-Petrie,
Egyptian Decorative Art; Hauser = Styllehre der architektonischen Formen
des Mittelalters; Loftus = Researches in Chaldaa, etc.; Met. Mus.t=iMetro-
politan Museum of Art, New York; Meyer == Meyer's Ornamentale
Formenlehre; O. J. ==. Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament; P. d'A. = Prisse
d'Avennes, L'Art Egyptien; P. & C. = Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de I'art
dans I'antiquiti; Pho. = Photograph; JL
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAQI
9. Carved foliage: Porte de la Vierge, Notre Dame, Paris ....!
10. Orange Border, Semi-naturalistic (A. after ill. in Journal of the
Royal Society, 1892)!
11. Persistence in Ornament: Trilobe Lotus Motives, Egyptian, Greek,
Roman, Gothic!
12. Convergence and Reversion: The Anthemion Motive, Greek,
Roman, Byzantine I
13. Anthemion Motives, Greek and Byzantine 1
14. Accidental Convergence: a, Egyptian Flower; b, Byzantine Cy-
presses 9
15. Primitive Dagger-handle, Neolithic S3
16. New Zealand Tiki-tiki Pattern: a, Carved; 6, Stamped .... 23
17. Maori Spear-head: Eyes and Tongue 23
18. Papuan Manhood-belt: Face Motives (A. after A. C. H.) ... 23
19. Typical Basketry Forms 33
20. Peruvian Grass-cloth: Animal Motive, Toucan 23
21. Peruvian Orass-cloth: Animal Motive, Dog 23
22. Savage Carvings: a, New Zealand; 6, Hawaiian 23
23. Brazilian "Fish" and "Bat" patterns (A. after A. C. H.) . . .23
25. Scratched Ornament on Maori Flute (A. after A. C. H.) ... 23
26. Brazilian and New Zealand Face Motives 23
27. Tusayan (Mexican) Jar (in A. M. N. H.) 23
28. Chiriqui Alligator Motives (A. after A. C. H.) 93
29. Maori Paddle: Detail 94
SO. Javanese War-Drum Head (A. after A. C. H.) 26
31. a, Pueblo Jar; 6, Spiral from Vase in PI. II, 8; c, Prehistoric Jar
from Budmer, Bosnia 28
32. Mexican Jar, in A. M. N. H 29
33. Detail from Sarcophagus of Menkaura (A. after P. & C.) . . . 33
34. Slate Palette in Louvre (A. after Capart) 36
35. Dish of Fruit, from a Tomb (A. after F. P.) 38
36. The Lotus: a, Natural; b, c, Conventionalized 47
37. Lotus Forms: a, Full Flower; b-c, Trilobe Forms 42
38. Lotus Border, from a Tomb (A. after O. J.) 47
39. Lotus Border, from a Tomb (A. after P. d'A.) 47
40. Lotus Rosette 47
41. Lotus and Spiral Pattern (A. after P. d'A.) 47
42. The Papyrus Plant 43
43. Detail of Campaniform Capital 47
44. Lotus or Aquatic Plant 47
45. Detail of Campaniform Capital, from Luxor 47
46. Painted Campaniform Capital, Karnak . . . s. 43
47. Painted Papyrus-head Cap (A. after P. d'A.) 47
48. Spiral All-over, with Rosettes (A. after P. d'A.) 47
49. Fret, or Key-Pattern, with Rosettes 47
50. Zigzags and Lozenges 47
51. Spiral Waves and Rosettes 47
xiv


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
52. Intersecting Circle Pattern 47
53. Spirals on Scarab Seal (A. after F. P.) 44
54. Palmette with Tabs (A. after W. H. G.) 47
55. Palmettes; a, Jewel, 4th Dynasty; b, Painted (A. after W. H. G.) 47
56. Palmette-and-bead Necklace 47
57. Vulture, painted on Ceiling (A. after P. d'A.) 47
58. Winged Globe, Cornice (A. after P. & C.) 47
59. Uraeus Cresting, Ptolemaic (from an Engraving) 47
60. Feather Ornament (A. after F. P.) 60
61. Decoration by Lines, Imbrications and Chevron 45
62. Typical Egyptian Cornice 47
63. Three Columns; a, b, e, Upper Part and Plans; d, Lower Part of
Clustered Shaft (A. after Meyer) . . 50
64. Three Egyptian Capitals (A. after Meyer) 50
65. Osirid Pier (A. after P. & C.) 51
68. Mosaic Wall-pattern (A. after Loftus) 57
69. Assyrian Motives: a, Lotus; 6, Palmette; e, Rosette (after Meyer);
d, Imbrications (after O. J.); t, winged disk or globe (after
Layard); f, Guilloche (after P. & C); h, Pomegranate; i, Pome-
granate-palmette scratched on Ivory (A. after A. C. H.) ... 58
70. a, b, Pine-cone Lotus Border, carved: c. Part of Sacred tree (after
Ward) 60
71. Assyrian Volutes 61
72. a, Ivory Palmette Terminal Ornament; 6, Palm-tree, from Relief
at Koyunjik 62
73. Assyrian Winged Monster or Griffin (A. after. P. & C.) . . . . 62
74. Details from Phrygian Tomb-facades: a, of "Midas"; 6, Doghanlou
(A. after P. & C.) 65
75. Capital from Neandreia: Proto-Ionic 66
76. Doorway from Persepolis 67
77. Persian Details: a, Architrave and Cornice from a Tomb; 6. Palm
Ornament; c, Stairway Parapet; d, Column-Base, all from Per-
sepolis (A. after P. & C. and Ward) 69
78. Volutes from Persepolitan Capital 70
79. Ahuri-mazda, from a Relief 71
80. Cretan Column 75
81. Cretan Frieze Ornament 76
82. Cretan Painted Ornament: Rosettes and Vitruvian Scroll (A. ufter
P. & C.) 76
83. Fret or Key Pattern, Knossos 76
84. Late Minoan Vase (A. after Engraving) 75
85. Marine Plants, from a Sarcophagus found at Gortyna (A. after
P. & C.) 76
86. Ornaments from Cretan Terra-cotta Ossuary (A. after P. & C.) 76
87. Upper part of Column, Tholos of Atreus 76
88. Mycenaean Bowl; Basketry Motives 76
89. Mycenaean Frieze Ornament 76
xv


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PaGI
90. Mycenaean Nature Forms: Plants, Squid, Dolphin 76
91. Mycenaean Pottery Spirals TB
92. Cuttle-Fish, from a Vase 76
93. Scale Ornament from Tiryns 76
94. Mycenaean Motives: a, b, Heart Forms; e, Branched Spiral (A.
after F. 4 L.) 76
95. o, Current Scroll, Tiryns; 6, Vase Ornament, Mycenae .... 78
96. Plant Forms, Mycenae Pottery (A. after F. 4 L.) 79
97. Squids, Mycenae Pottery 79
98. A Mycenae Button 80
99. Detail from Wall Band, Tiryns (A. after P. 4 C.) 80
100. a, Gold Inlay, Spirals on Sword; 6, from Bronse Stele: both from
Mycenae 89
101. a, Mycenaean Vase; 6, from Bronze Tripod, Athens 81
102. Mycenaean Ornament in Alabaster (A. after P. 4 C.) .... 81
103. Rosettes: a, Tiryns; b, Mycenae (A. after P. 4 C.) 81
104. a, Mycenaean Plant; 6, Egyptian Palmette 81
105. Ivy Band, Mycenaean Pottery 81
106. From a Phenician Silver Platter 81
107. From a Mycenaean Silver Cup 81
108. Phenician Silver: Palmettes and Griffins 81
109. a, e, Phenician Palmettes; b, Greek Vase Ornament 81
110. Cypriote Oenochoe" (A. after W. H. G., in Arch. Rec.) .... 81
111. Detail from Cypriote Sarcophagus from Amatbus, in Met. Mus. . 81
112. Cypriote Lotuses (W. H. G. in Arch. Rec.) 81
113. Cypriote Bronte Stele (A. after W. H. G.) 81
114. Cypriote Stone Stele in Met. Mus 83
115. Cypriote Lotus, checkered (W. H. G. in Arch. Rec.) 83
116. Cypriote Ornaments 83
117. Phenician Vase from Jerusalem (A. after P. 4 C.) 84
118. Detail, Cypriote Vase from Ormidia, in Met. Mus. (A. after P.
4 C.) 84
119. Cypriote Vase Ornaments; Nature Forms, a, Goose and Lotus;
6, Astarte (?) and Plants; e, Fantastic Flower (A. after P. 4 C.) 85
120. Lotus-and-Bud Borders from Rhodian and Melian Vases ... 86
121. Greek Vase, Fine Period, in Royal Museum, Naples (Pho.) . . 89
121a. Carved Anthemion Band, from Erechtheion, Athens (Pho.) . 89
122. Greek Palmette Ornament; Early Vth Century b.c. (A. after Lau.) 94
123. Anthemion Band, Typical Linking by Spirals, compared with typi-
cal Assyrian Linking 94
124. Typical Geometric Ornament Elements 96
125. Typical Nature Form-Elements 96
126. Typical Architectural Forms 97
127. Carved Rinceau, Temple of Apollo at Didyme, near Miletus: from
Base of Column (A. from Pho.) 94
128. Types of Greek Vases: a, Aryballos; 6, Lekythos; c, Rhyton; d,
Alabastron; i, I, Hydria; /. Krater; e, g. Amphora; h, Ointment
Box; k, Kylix (A. after Meyer) 101
xvi


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
129. Geometric or Dipylon Vase, from Museum of Sevres (A. after J.) 103
130. Rbodian Vase, Sevres Museum (A. after Jacquemart) .... 103
131. Single and Double Frets 94
132. GuiUoche, from Painted Molding 94
132a. Wave or Current Scroll 104
133. Anthemion with Branding Scrolls » 105
134. Types of Anthemion Patterns 105
135. Types of Anthemions 94
136. Types of the Lotiform Motive 94
137. Vine Pattern, from Vase 94
138. Elementary Rinceau on Pottery 94
139. Lotus-and-bud Origin of Egg-and-dart Motive 108
140. Apulian Vase; Sevres Museum (A. after Jacquemart) .... 109
141. Detail from Handle of Apulian Vase 94
142. Painted Molding Ornaments 113
143. Painted Ceiling Panel from Parthenon, (G. K. H. after Meyer) . . Ill
144. Carved Egg-and-dart and Water-leaf 113
145. Details from North Door of Erechtheion: a, Cantilever or Bracket;
6, Rosette 113
146. Corinthian Capital, Temple of Zeus, Athens 113
147. Triple Guilloche on Torus of an Ionic Base 116
148. Foliage Capital, from Aegte 118
149. Branching Scroll and Covering-leaf; from Erechtheion . . . .113
150. Painted Terra-cotta Anteflx; Athens 119
151. Acanthus (or Aloes?) on Steles 113
152. Acanthus and Burdock Leaves 120
153. Acanthus: a, A. Mollis; b, A. Spinosus 113
154. Corinthian Capital from Basse (Phigalaea) 121
155. Corinthian Capital from "Tower of the Winds," Athens . . . .121
156. Detail of Etruscan Terra-cotta Cresting (A. after A. p. T.) . . 128
157. Details from Terra-cottas in Campana Collection, Louvre (A. after
A. p. T.) 138
158. 159. Borders or Edgings of "Campana" Terra-cottas (A. after A.
p. T.) 129
160. Part of an Etruscan Terra-cotta Pilaster; Lilies (A. after Kachel) 130
161. Etruscan Pilaster Cap. (A. after Dunn) 131
162. Bronze Mirror and Jewels (A. after Meyer and Ward) .... 131
163. Roman Decorative System: Hall of Baths of Caracalla (Denk-
maler der Kunst?) 134
164. Roman Arch and Columns, from Arch of Titus 136
165. Niche Cap from Baalbek (A. after Durm) 137
166. Scroll from Temple of Vespasian, in Villa Aldobrandini .... 138
167. Typical Roman Moldings 139
168. Ionic Capital with Corner Volutes 140
169. Corinthian Capital, Temple of Mars Ultor (A. after d'Espouy) . 141
170. Composite Capital in Lateran Museum 143
171. Two Pilaster Caps (Meyer) 145
172. A Modillion 142
xvii


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
173. Restoration of Cornice-of Basilica ./Emilia (from photograph of
original drawing by R. H. S my the) 143
174. Order of Temple of Castor and Pollux; Photograph of Cast in
Metropolitan Museum. New York 150
175. Restoration of Arch of Constantinej Photograph of Model in
Metropolitan Museum, New York 150
176. Two Standing Acanthus Leaves 151
177. Varieties of Acanthus Leaf Detail (A. after Dunn) . . . .153
178. Pilaster Scroll Nests: a, Late Roman, from an old French Litho-
graph; b, Fragment in Villa Medici, from Cast in Columbia
University 145
179. Roman Rinceau and Scroll Nest, from Forum of Trajan, in Lateran
Museum (A. from Pho.) 154
180. Candelabrum in Vatican (Meyer) 145
181. Two Rosette Types 145
183. Rinceau from Temple of Sun (A. after a French Drawing) . . 154
183. Three Roman Anthemion Ornaments 156
184. Ceiling Panels from Arch of Titus, Baths of Caracalla, and
Basilica of Constantine 157
185. Dolphins, from an Etruscan Terra-cotta (Meyer after Kachel) . . 145
186. Bucranes and Festoon or Swag (Meyer) 145
187. Stucco Relief from Tomb in Via Latina (Pho.) 159
188. Stucco Relief from House exhumed in 1879, now in Museo delle
Terme, Rome (Pho.) 159
189. Mosaic Floor Pattern, from Pompeii 145
190. Detail of Floor Mosaic from Villa Italica near Seville (A. after
Pfeifer) 163
191. Roman Marble Vase in Naples Museum (Pho.) 165
192. Roman Marble Vase, from Cast in Metropolitan Museum, New
York 165
193. Details from a Bronze Vase and Jewelry, perhaps Etruscan . . 163
194. Under Side of a Vase in the "Hildesheim Find," now in Berlin
("Workshop") 164
195. Roman Grotesque; Detail of Relief from Forum of Trajan in
Lateran Museum (A. from Pho.) 168
196. Pompeiian Ionic Capital (A. after Watt) 171
197. Pompeiian Moldings (A. after Mazois and Zahn) 172
198. Carved Rinceau, from a Tomb in Pompeii (A. from Pho.) . . . 173
199. Painted Wall, Third Period (Pho.) 176
200. Painted Wall, Fourth Period (Pho.) 176
201. Stucco Relief from Stabian Baths (Pho.) 180
202. Pompeiian Floor Mosaics (A. after Zahn) 181
203. Mosaic Fountain in Casa Grande, Pompeii (Pho.) 185
204. Marble Table Supports from House of Cornelius Rufus, Pompeii
(Pho.) 185
205. Candelabrum and Table Leg (A. p. T. and Meyer after Botticher) 182
206. End of a Sarcophagus in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (C. U.) 188
207. Interior (Detail) of S. Lorenzo Fuori, Rome (Pho.) 189
xviii


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
208. Floor Mosaic in S. M. in Trastevere (from a French Drawing) . . 194
209. Byzantine Veined Wainscot (Journal of R. I. B. A., 1887) . . . 196
210. Apse-head Mosaic in S. Clemente, Rome (Pho.) 189
211. Ornaments in Mosaic: a, from St. John Lateran; b, Sta. Maria in
Trastevere 197
212. Pulpit Detail from Sta. Maria in Ara Coeli, Rome (Ward) . . 199
213. Pulpit Details from S. Lorenzo Fuori, Rome (Racinet) .... 200
214. Detail of Cloister Arcade, St. John Lateran, Rome (Pho.) . . .203
215. Mosaic on Annular Vault of Sta. Costanza, Rome (Pho.) . . . 203
216. Detail of Order, Tomb in Palace of Diocletian, Spalato . . . .207
217. Capital with Impost Block, San Vitale, Ravenna (A. from Pho.) 208
218. Corinthianesque Capital, S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (A. after
Dehli) 209
219. Basket Capital, S. Apollinare Nuovo (C. U.) 210
220. Byzantine Surface Carving: above, from Hagia Sophia; below, from
St. Sergius ("Kuchuk Aya Sofia") 211
221. Frieze from St. John Studios (Emir Akhor J ami) 213
222. Byzantine Acanthus Molding, from an Abacus 213
223. Anthemion Ornament from Ravenna 213
224. Anthemion Cornice from St. Mark's, Venice (V. E. Macy) . . . 214
225. Byzantine Crosses and Anthemions: above, left, from Hagia
Sophia; right, from Civic Museum, Venice; below, from Ra-
venna 215
220. Acanthus Leaves and Rinceaux, from Bishop's Palace, Ferentino 216
227. Vine Border from Carved Pluteal in San Vitale, Ravenna . . . 219
228. Detail from Fig. 225 220
229. Peacock Openwork Panel, Torcello (Pho.) 217
230. Carved Interlace from Spalato (Pho.) 217
230a. Carved Interlace from St. Mark's, Venice 220
231. Openwork Panel in San Vitale, Ravenna (Pho.) 217
232. Basket Capital from St Mark's, Venice (Pho.) 217
233. Guilloche Pattern from Hagia Sophia (Meyer) 222
234. End of a Sarcophagus in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (C. U.) 222
235. Openwork Window Filling, Sta. Maria Pomposa (Pho.) . . . 223
236. Mosaic, Detail from Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna (Pho.) . . 223
237. Ivory Throne of Bishop Maximian in Cathedral of Ravenna (Pho.) 223
238. The Crown of Charlemagne (Ward) 227
239. Fabric in Bamberg Museum (Bayet) 231
340. Syrian Carving: a, from Tourmanin; 6, from Bakouza .... 231
241. Russian (Georgian) and Armenian Carving, chiefly from a Litho-
graph by Gagarin 230
242. Details of Marble Inlays on Flank of Cathedral of Pisa .... 240
243. Mosaic Altar Front from Ferentino (Pho.) ....... 236
244. Detail from Facade of San Michele, Lucca (Pho.) 236
245. False Window, San Stefano, Bologna (Pho.) 336
246. Lintel of a Door, San Guisto, Lucca (Pho.) 342
847. Pavement Detail from Baptistry of Florence (Pho.) 342
348. Interior of Cathedral of Monreale (Pho.) 247
xix


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
249. Capitals from Cloisters of Cathedral of Monreale (Pho.) ... 247
250. Painted Cuflc Inscription, Palermo (Gen.) 243
351. Detail from Bronze Doors of Cathedral of Monreale by Bonnano 344
252. Arcaded Cornice from S. Martino at Palaia (A. from Pho.) ... 845
353. Wheel Window of Church at Altamura (Pho.) 353
254. Portal of Church of San Zeno, Verona (Pho.) 353
S55. Lombard Carved "Monsters": above, Capital from Church at
Aurona; middle, Symbols of St. John and St. Mark on Pulpit in
S. Stefano, Bologna; below, from San Ambrogio, Milan (A. after
Osten and de Dartein) 340
356. One Bay and Detail, St Paul-trois-Chateaux (A. after Revoil) . 250
257. Portal of Church at Carrenac (Pho.) 359
258. Portal St. Jean of Cathedral of Rouen (Pho.) 359
259. Capital from Cathedral of Angouleme (Pho.) 259
260. Shafts and Figures, West Portal of Chartres Cathedral (Pho.) . . 259
261. Caps and Arch Carvings, St. Pierre d'Aulnay (Pho.) 259
362. Double Capital, St Martin des Champs, Paris (Pho.) . . . .259
263. Romanesque Iron Knocker (Pho. of Cast in Trocadero Museum,
Paris) 259
264. Baseo with Spurs 251
265. Late French Romanesque Capital (C. U., Zetsche) 252
266. Carved Rinceaux, from Mantes (above) and Vaison (below) . . 255
267. Acanthus Leaves from Portal of Church at Avallon 256
268. Carved Rinceau, Avallon 256
269. Double Rinceau, Notre Dame, Paris (A. after V.-le-D.) . . .257
270. Romanesque Ornaments (Hauser) 261
271. Carved Anthemion Bands, Church of St. Aubin at Angers (A. after
Cahier et Martin) . . 262
272. Grotesque, from Church of Notre Dame, Poitiers 263
273. Leaf Motive on a Tile, St. Omer 264
274. Corinthianesque Capital, Lincoln Cathedral (C. U.) 267
275. Capital from St. Peter's, Northampton (C. U.) 267
976. Ornaments from Doorway of Iffley Church, Oxfordshire (Rick-
man) 268
277. Beak or Bird's-head Molding 268
278. Interlaced Arches (Hauser) 269
279. Anthemion Ornaments: above, from- St. Savior's, Southwark; be-
low, from Hereford Cathedral 270
280. Celtic Initials: Q, from an Italian Periodical; O, from Lindisfarne
Gospels (O. J.); S, from Book of Kells (A. after Sullivan) . . 270
281. Various Interlaces (Racinet, etc.) 271
282. Cover of St. Patrick's Bell (Ward) 271
283. One Quarter of Cover of Molaise Gospels (Ward) 272
284. Capital from Gernrode 273
285. Capital from Church in WUrttemberg (Gen.) 274
296. Doorway from Abbey of Heilsbronn (Hauser) 275
287. Capital from Tarragona (Gewerbehalle) 276
288. Capital from Tarragona (Gewerbehalle) 276
xx


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
289. Norwegian Carving: . a, from Church at Stedye; 6, Unidentified
<Gen.) 277
290. Norwegian Chair or Choir Stall (Gewerbehalle) 277
291. Details of Candelabrum in Milan Cathedral (Ward) . . . .278
292. Chandelier at Hildesheim, Detail (A. after illustration in Archi-
tectural Record) 279
293. Romanesque Gold Cup in Museum at Bergen (Workshop) . . . 280
294. Three French Gothic Capitals: a, from Sainte Chapelle, Paris;
6, from Notre Dame, Paris; c, from North Spire of Chartres
Cathedral (A., from his History of Architecture) 283
295. Decorative Gable over Window, Cologne Cathedral (Hauser) . 284
296. A Clustered Pier, Plan and Elevation (C. U.) 285
297. Romanesque Capital from Bayeux Cathedral, and Gothic Capital
from St Martin-des-Champs, Paris 286
298. Gothic Clustered Bases, from Cathedral of Halberstadt (Hauser)
and Rouen (Raguenet) 287
299. Gothic Pier-Arch Moldings from Chartres, Le Mans, and St. Mac-
lou (Rouen) (A. after Simpson) 288
300. Enriched Cornice Molding, Notre Dame, Paris (Hauser) . . . 289
301. Vaulting Boss, French (Hauser) 289
302. Vaulting of Apsidal Chapel, Beauvais (C. U.) 290
303. Tierceron Vaulting: Chapter House of Wells Cathedral; Exeter
Nave; Lincoln, Lantern (Pho.) 291
304. a, Nave of Winchester Cathedral; 6, Fan Vault, Henry VII's
Chapel, Westminster (Pho.) 292
305 a, Plate Tracery, Etton Church 293
305 6, Bar Tracery, Meopham Church; c, Perpendicular Tracery, North-
fleet Church (A. after Brandon and others) 294
306. Cusps in Tracery 295
307. French Rayonnaut Balustrade (C. U. after V.-le-Duc) . . . .296
308. French Flamboyant Balustrade, Chateau de Josselyn (C. U.) . . 296
309 a, A French Early Gothic Crocket (Hauser); 6, a French Flamboyant
Crocket, Evreux Cath. (C. U.) 298
310. A Gothic Cresting (Meyer, after Jacobs thai) 298
311. French Flamboyant Tabernacle Canopy, House of Jacques Coeur,
Bourges (Pho.) 299
312. Gargoyle from Notre Dame, Paris (Pho.) 299
313. Capital, St. Martin-des-Champs, Paris (C. U., C. S. Haight) . . 304
314. Corner Leaf, Notre Dame, Paris 305
315. French Rayonnant Capital (C. U., Zetsche) 305
316. Capitals, Chapter House of Southwell Cathedral (A. from Pho.) 306
317. Crocket, Wells Cathedral (C. U.) 306
318. Capital from Salisbury Cathedral (C. U., J. J. Ide) 307
319. Tudor Flower (A. after Colling) 307
320. Arcade of Kings, Amiens Cathedral (Hauser) 308
381. Tympanum, Porte de la Vierge, Notre Dame, Paris (Pho.) . . .310
322. Reliefs from Portal of Notre Dame (Pho.) from cast in Trocadero
Museum) 310
xzi


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAOE
333. Tomb of St Stephen, Abbot of Aubaxine (Pho. from cast in
Trocadero Museum) 310
324. The Last Judgment, Central West Doorway of Notre Dame (Pho.) 313
335. Rood Screen, Alby Cathedral (Pho.) 313
326. A Miserere, Beverley Cathedral (A., after Bond) 313
327. XlVth Century Pew End, Winthorpe Church (C. U.) 315
328. Detail from Wrought-Iron Screen in St Benin, Toulouse . . . 316
329. "Penture" or False Hinge, Central Doors of Notre Dame, Paris
(Pho.) 318
330. Iron Screen in Bourges Cathedral (Pho.) 318
331. Two French Tile Patterns (A. after Meyer) 319
332. Manuscript Ornaments, XVth Century (Spelts) 330
333. A French Medallion Window, Chartres (Arch. Kec.) 333
334. a Part of Jesse Window, Chartres Cathedral (Arch. Rec) . . . 332
335. 6 Upper Part, Canopy Window from Cologne (A. after Hasak) . 333
335. c Upper Part, Canopy Window from York (A. after Glazier) . . 323
336. German Grisaille Windows, from Cologne Cathedral (above) and
Altenburg (below) 334
337. Leading of a XIHth Century French Window, "The Wedding in
Cana" (Arch. Rec.) 325
338. Upper Part of a French Figure Window in Chartres Cathedral
(Arch. Record) 326
339. Part of Pulpit in Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 327
340. Church of St. Maclou, Rouen (Pho.) 327
341. Detail, Carving on Front of Sens Cathedral 332
342. Capital from Sainte Chapelle, Paris (C. U, Zetsche) 332
343. Detail from Cornice of Notre Dame 335
344. Detail from Cornice of Church at Norrey, near Caen (A. after
Nesfield) 335
345. Oak Leaf Cornice of Sainte Chapelle, Paris (Hauser) .... 336
346. Late Gothic Molding, Choir Enclosure of Notre Dame, Paris . . 336
347. Rosette-Boss from Sainte Chapelle 337
348. Vertical Carved Rinceau, Notre Dame, Paris (A. after V.-le-Duc) 337
349. Reliefs from Base of Portal of Notre Dame, Paris (Gewerbehalle) 338
350. Early Gothic Grotesque, Chartres Cathedral (Pho.) .... 334
351. Part of Late Gothic Choir Screen, Amiens Cathedral (Pho.) . . 334
352. Two Figures from Portal of Amiens (Pho.) . 339
353. XlVth Century Ivory Triptych in Municipal Library, Amiens
(Pho.) 339
354. Half of Western Rose Window, Chartres Cathedral (Plate Tracery) 341
355. Early French Tracery, from Reims Cathedral 341
356. "Lanterne des Morts," Avioth, Brittany (Pho.) 343
357. Flamboyant Detail, Church of St Jacques, Reims (from a French
Lithograph) 343
358. Rayonnant Tracery Carved on Wood, from a Church Door (Pho.) 348
359. Flamboyant Tracery, Church of St. Pierre at Louviers (Pho.) . . 348
360. a, One Half of Spandrel Carving, Church at Stone, Kent; 6, Capital
from Lincoln Cathedral; c, from Ely Cathedral (from Engrav-
ings in Monumental News) 350
zxii


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
361. Early English Capitals (Casts in Metropolitan Museum, New
York) (Pho.) 351
362. Triforium of "Angel Choir," Lincoln Cathedral (Pho.) .... 351
363. Wreath Capital, Beverley Cathedral (?) (from engraving in Monvi-
rmntal News) 353
364. a, Finial, Chapter House of Wells Cathedral; 6, Crocket from
Beverley Minster (C. U., Scott, Bartberger) 353
365. Molding Ornaments, Early, Decorated and Transitional (Rick-
man) 354
366. Carved Spandrel, Church at Stone, Kent (C. U.) 354
367. Detail, Diapered Triforium, Arcade of Westminster Abbey (Rick-
man), and Detail from Diapering of Main Arcade 355
368. Detail, Wooden Screen in Manchester Cathedral, XVth Century
(C. U., Wilson) 356
369a. Curvilinear Period Carved Wooden Panels (A. after Colling) . . 357
369. Carved "Poppy-head" from a Pew-end in St. Mary's, Bury St.
Edmunds 357
370. Plate Tracery, Lillington Church, Northants (A. after Bond) . . 358
371. Geometric Tracery, E. Window, Raunds Ch. (Rickman) ... 358
372. Curvilinear Tracery; a, Ithlingboro, Northants; 6, Over, Cambs;
e, Little Addington, Northants (Rickman) 359
373. Perpendicular Window, Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick (Rickman) 360
374. Hammer Beam "Open Timber" Roof, Trunch Church (Rickman) 363
374a. Open Timber Roof, Lavenham Church (Bury) 363
375. Porch of Church of St. Lawrence (Lorenzkirche) Nuremberg (Pho.) 367
376. North Side Portal, Freiburg Cathedral (Pho.) 368
377. General View, Freiburg Cathedral with Open Work Spire (Pho.) 368
378. Central Portal, Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 371
379. North Side Portal, Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 371
380. Altar-piece or Reredos, Church at Esslingen (Hauser) .... 369
380a. Carved Pew End, German Middle Gothic (Gewerbehalle) . . .370
381. Late German Gothic Carving (Gewerbehalle) 373
382. Shrine or Reredos in Church at Braunau (Arch. Rec.), and Details
from West Portal, Freiburg Cathedral (Pho.) 372
383. Interior of "New" Cathedral of Salamanca (Pho.) 367
384. Patio (Court) of the Infantado Palace at Guadalajara (Pho.) . . 375
385. Interior of Chapel of the Condestabile in Burgos Cathedral (Pho.) 375
386. Mudejar Detail (Gewerbehalle) 374
387. Part of Flank of Cathedral of Florence (Pho.) 376
388. Part of Front of Orvieto Cathedral (Pho.) 381
389. Details from Lucca Cathedral: Sculptured Shaft and Marble In-
lay (Gewerbehalle) 378
390. Capital from a Tomb in Church of Santa Chiara, Naples . . . 379
391. Wall-Tomb in San Antonio, Padua (C. U.) 390
392. Tomb of Can Mastino II Scaligero, Verona (Pho.) 383
392a. Tomb of Giovanni Scaligero, Verona (Pho.) 383
393. Facade of Sienna Cathedral (Pho.) 385
394. Twisted Shaft and Marble Inlay, Campanile, Florence (Pho.) . . 385
xxiii


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
395. Tracery, Or San Michele, Florence (Pho.) 386
396. Front of a Gothic Palace in Venice 383
397. Detail from Altar Canopy, Or San Michele, Florence (Pho.) . . 389
398. Detail, Painted Wall in a Chapel of Santa Croce, Florence (Pho.) 386
399. Carving from Arch of "Mandorla" Door, Cathedral of Florence 384
400. Detail, Choir Stalls of Molfetta Cathedral, now in Museum (Pho.) 389
401. Capitals from Lower Arcade of Doge's Palace (C. U.) . . . .387
zxiv


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL





A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Definitions.
The history of ornament is the record of the origins
and progressive developments of decorative design.
By decoration is meant the adornment or embellish-
ment of an object by purposed modifications of its form
or color. When decoration is effected by the repetition
or combination of specific form-elements according to
a predetermined scheme, the form-elements are called
motives. Collectively they are denominated ornament,
and when combined or repeated according to some defi-
nite geometric system, they are said to form a pattern.
Thus on page 9, Figure 1 is an ornament; so is Figure
2, which shows a geometric pattern formed with the mo-
tive aa. Pure ornament is that in which the decorative
purpose wholly dominates the design, as distinguished
from decorative painting and decorative sculpture, in
which the decorative purpose is subordinate to the pic-
torial or sculptural representation of a fact, event or
idea.
3


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Thus in the Parthenon the sculptured pediments,
metopes and frieze, representing episodes and scenes
from Greek mythology and legend, are examples of
decorative sculpture; while the triglyphs, antefixae and
painted moldings are examples of pure ornament.
There is a large field of decorative design which par-
takes somewhat of the character of both pure ornament
and pictorial or sculptural representation. Such are
symbolical and grotesque figures, masks, lions' heads
and much floral ornament, all of which are at once
decorative and representative. Each example of such
decoration must be classified according to its predomi-
nant purpose. Thus, although Figure 1 plainly pic-
tures a grapevine, its formally artificial arrangement
shows it to be intended as an ornament and not a picture.
There are, however, many cases in which the purposes
of representation and decoration are so evenly balanced
that they may be with equal propriety assigned to either
category.
Classifications.
Pure ornament may be classified according to any of
several principles: e.g., according to—
A. Its way of covering space.
B. The manner and means of its production.
C. The method or principle of its design.
D. The object to which it is applied.
E. Its relation to structure.
A. According to the way in which ornament covers
space it may be divided into linear, all-over, and radiat-
ing ornament. Each of these may be subdivided into
4


INTRODUCTORY
continuous and discontinuous ornament. In linear
ornament the motives are arranged in sequence along a
single line, to form bands or borders, as in Figure 3, in
which a and b are continuous linear patterns, and c dis-
continuous. In "all-over" patterns the units are ar-
ranged along two or more intersecting systems of lines
so as to cover a broad surface (Figures 2,5,8). In radi-
ating patterns the surface is covered by units radiating
from a central point (Figures 6, 7). In each of these
cases the ornament may be continuous, each unit being
connected with its neighbors (Figures 3, a, b; Figure 18,
page 23) or discontinuous as in Figure 3, c or Figure 5.
Continuous "all-overs" forming a mesh of two sets of
intersecting lines are called quarries (from the French
carre = square). Discontinuous all-overs are called
powderingsj more rarely they are said to be spangled
(Figure 5). When isolated units are powdered or
spangled in the meshes of a quarry, the combination is
called a diaper. Figure 5 is a powdering; 2 is a quarry;
8 a diaper pattern.
B. According to the means by which the ornament
is produced, it is classified as plastic or chromatic. Plas-
tic ornament is such as depends on light-and-shade for
its effect, being produced by raising or depressing the
surface in various ways, as by molding, carving, hammer-
ing, stamping, etc. (Figures 4, 6, 9). Chromatic orna-
ment is all such as depends on color (including black
and white) for its effect, as in Figure 10 representing a
painted band. Certain classes of textile ornament, like
lace and embroidery, in which open-work and relief are
depended on to produce the pattern, are included under
5


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
plastic ornament. Chromatic ornament comprises all
painted ornament, enamel, inlay, stained glass and
mosaic, and all such textile ornament as depends upon
effects of color, whether produced by weaving, printing,
needle work, or otherwise.
C. According to the source and principle of its de-
sign, ornament is divisible into the three categories of
conventional, naturalistic, and conventionalized-natural
ornament. Conventional ornament is in general that
which is the product of fancy or definite rule working
upon pure form, and is for the most part geometric in
character. Zigzags, frets, spirals and all geometric
patterns fall under this head (Figures 3, 7). Natural-
istic ornament comprises all decorative forms derived
from Nature directly and with little or no change, such
as flower and leaf forms, lion's heads, and the like, as
in Figures 1, 10. When, however, natural forms are
subjected to purposed modifications to adapt them to
decorative effect, they are said to be conventionalized;
and this class of ornament constitutes more than half
of all the ornament of nearly all the historic styles. The
acanthus leaf (Fig. 174), and a whole world of floral
motives in both classic and medieval art, belong in this
category (Figures 4, 6, 9, 10, on page 9, and 16 b, 20,
28 on page 23). The nature-form is subjected to one
or more of the operations of regularization of details
that in nature occur irregularly or unsymmetrically;
suppression or abstraction of features that occur in
nature but are repugnant to the desired decorative effect;
exaggeration of minor details; multiplication of what
occurs only once or at rare intervals in the natural ob-
6


INTRODUCTORY
ject; and combination, or the union in one design of ele-
ments that do not in Nature occur together.
D. According to the object to which it is applied,
ornament is divided into architectural ornament, applied
to or executed in or upon fixed structures, and industrial
ornament, which adorns movable objects. Capitals of
columns, friezes, gargoyles, finals, cornices, and balus-
trades are examples of architectural ornament; vase-
decorations, furniture-carving, silverware, jewelry,
laces, book-covers belong technically in the field of
industrial ornament. There is a large class of decorative
works that may be placed in either category, such as
pulpits, choir-stalls, monumental candelabra and the
like.
E. Ornament may again be divided into two cate-
gories according to its relation to structure. Structural
ornament is that which belongs to, grows out of, or
strongly suggests, the structural framework and consti-
tution of the object ornamented: such are capitals,
cornices, balustrades, window-trims, tracery, moldings,
paneling, metal scroll-work and the like. Applied orna-
ment is that which is added to an object already complete
structurally; such as painted ornament, mosaic, inlay,
paper-hangings, tapestries, etc.
Significance of Classifications.
All these classifications are devices for convenience
in the discussion and criticism of ornament, and are
important only as they serve this purpose. They cor-
respond to real differences of design, process and pur-
pose, but there is always a wide borderland in which
7


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
classification is not easy, and perhaps not important.
Each classification covers the entire field of ornament,
so that any decorative design may be assigned its place
in all five classifications. Thus the carving in the
spandrels of Westminster Abbey (Fig. 367) would be
(A) a diaper, (B) plastic ornament of (C) convention-
alized-natural flowers, (D) architectural and (E) either
structural or applied, as one may prefer to consider it.
A fret-border embroidered on an altar-cloth or painted
on a vase, would be a linear, chromatic, conventional,
industrial, applied ornament. These classifications
depend upon one's critical judgment, especially in C,
D and E, so that differences in the classifications of the
same ornament by different writers are frequent and
unimportant, especially where a design combines ele-
ments from different categories of the same class, as
when carving and color are combined, or natural forms
blended with purely geometric or conventional elements.
Meaning of History.
Decorative design appears at first sight to be so
entirely a matter of the designer's unhampered fancy,
that a history of the art might seem an impossibility;
for how can there be a history of millions of indepen-
dent, unrelated fancies? But as a matter of fact no
designer is or ever has been wholly free. In the first
place, he knows but an infinitesimal fraction of the world
of possible decorative forms—those, in short, which he
has been taught or has seen, or has learned by experi-
ment. He is hampered by the traditions of his art, by
the taste of his age and the demands of the market, by the
8





A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
tools and materials he uses, by his own mental and artistic
limitations. By reason of common limitations and en-
vironment, the designer of any one place and time tend
to work alike in certain respects, and those character-
istics which are common to their work constitute the
style of that time and region. The history of ornament
is, then, the record of the origin, growth, decay, succes-
sion and inter-relation of the various styles of decorative
design.
The Historic Styles.
"Style" is distinctive character or quality. The his-
toric styles of ornament are the distinctive ways, methods
and systems of decorative design which have prevailed
in different countries at different times, and are desig-
nated usually by the names of the peoples who have
practised them and by the age, century, period or reign
in which they have flourished: as, for example, the
Roman Imperial Style, the French Gothic, Italian
Early Renaissance and American Colonial Style, etc.
Each historic style is seen to have passed through the
successive stages of infancy and early growth, maturity
and decline, after which it disappears, usually giving
place to a new style, either derived from some other
civilization, or growing up out of the declining style by
the introduction of some new germinant principle of de-
sign. Of the great variety of ornament-forms produced
in any one period, a few find favor and are constantly re-
peated, while the others disappear. A tendency thus as-
serts itself in a given direction, and by countless in-
finitesimal changes of these familiar forms along the line
10


INTRODUCTORY
of this tendency the style is developed and then gradu-
ally transformed. The historic styles are phenomena of
growth, of racial and epochal environments, not sud-
denly occurring phases due to chance. No man and no
coterie of men can create a real and living style; for
style depends not alone upon the designer, but also on
his inheritance and environment.
The "Biology" of Styles.
The development of styles presents many analogies to
biological phenomena. Transmission by inheritance,
persistence of type, occasional reversions towards the
primitive type, exceptional forms analogous to the
"sports" that occur in Nature—all these are met with
in the history of ornament, as well as the constant evolu-
tionary progress from simple to complex, from the
rudimentary to the highly organized. There is also
observable in the development of ornament a phenom-
enon which may be called convergence, in which two
lines of development from different sources approach
each other and finally coalesce. The resulting form or
pattern resembles somewhat both its ancestors, though
constituting a new type in itself. It is therefore often
impossible to assign a single origin to an ornament-type;
and much of the discussion and controversy about dis-
puted origins might be avoided by recognizing the orna-
ment in question as derived by convergence from both
or all of the several sources to which the disputants
assign it.
In Figure 11, page 9, a, b and c suggest the pos-
sible evolution of the "trilobe lotus," c from its simplest
11


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
painted form, a in Egyptian ornament, while d, e and /
illustrate the persistence of this motive in Greek, Roman
and Gothic ornament respectively, the whole covering
a period of nearly 3000 years. In Figure 12 a Greek
vase ornament of anthemions is shown at a, followed by
a Roman derivative modified by acanthus-leaf details.
The three lower examples are Byzantine acanthus
leaves which have converged towards the anthemion type
to such an extent that they may with equal propriety be
called anthemions or acanthus leaves. Figure 13 (in
which b is an enlargement of c in Figure 12) further
illustrates this convergence of the Byzantine acanthus
towards the Greek anthemion-type, though this latter
was probably quite unknown to most Byzantine artists.
In Figure 14 we have a curious example of accidental
reversion towards an ancient type: the left-hand form
a being an Egyptian representation of some water-
plant, while the two anthemion-like forms at the right,
b, are late Byzantine conventional representations of
the funereal cypress tree!
Prehistoric, Primitive and Savage Ornament.
It remains to consider briefly the relation to historic
art of those early forms of ornament which were pro-
duced before the dawn of the historic cultures, as well as
of the ornament of savage and barbarous peoples that
have remained outside the currents of modern civiliza-
tion. So far as the arts of the cavemen of the
palaeolithic and neolithic ages are concerned, there is no
traceable connection between them and the earliest his-
toric civilizations—those of Egypt and Chaldea: the in-
12


INTRODUCTORY
termediate links have perished absolutely. With re-
gard to savage ornament, the fact that it is contempo-
raneous with civilized and even modern cultures, makes
possible an influence from the latter upon the savage art
which establishes certain occasioned resemblances be-
tween the two. But there is no evidence as yet discov-
erable of the unaided development of savage art into
civilized and progressive art. The essential character
of savage art is that of arrested development. It is
often interesting and effective, but seems incapable of
further progress. It is sterile, and as a subject of study,
quite outside the field of the historic styles.
Primitive ornament, on the other hand, is ornament in
the earliest stages of its development. The term may
therefore be applied to the beginnings of historic art or
of particular styles, as well as to that of the Stone Age
and prehistoric times. Primitive ornament is fre-
quently uncouth, while savage ornament is often highly
elaborated (see Plates I and II); but the latter has
ceased to advance, while primitive ornament often re-
veals the promise and potency of indefinite life and
growth. The one is a dwarf, the other an infant.
Six Propositions.
The history of art seems to bear out the following
propositions:
I. The earliest known historic ornament belongs to
civilizations already well advanced.
II. The primitive origins of this earliest known his-
toric ornament have yet to be discovered and identified.
Prehistoric remains in Egypt are being studied, and
13


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
have thrown some light upon the earliest stages of art in
that most ancient of known civilizations; but the prob-
lem has not yet been by any means fully solved.
III. Savage or aboriginal ornament has never yet
been known to develop unaided into a civilized and pro-
gressive art.
IV. The ornament of every historic style is found
to be chiefly derived from that of some older civilization,
until we reach back to the earliest historic art of Egypt
and Chaldea, beyond which its sources have not yet been
traced.
V. Each historic culture has imposed upon the decora-
tive art thus inherited or borrowed a development and
form of its own, either by blending with the borrowed
forms others of its own invention, or by progressive
modifications of detail, or by both together.
VI. In these modifications of the imported or in-
herited ornament-forms, their original use and signifi-
cance are in time lost sight of or ignored. Magical
forms become mere symbols, symbolic forms mere orna-
ment; and structural forms are applied where the con-
struction does not demand them, so that they become
in time motives of architectural decoration pure and
simple.
Value of the Study of Ornament Styles.
The importance of this study lies in its value not only
to the designer, in enabling him to design consistently,
either by following a given style closely or by diverging
from it intelligently; but also to the archeologist and the
student of history. For the style of a work of decora-
14


INTRODUCTORY
tion is frequently a more reliable, index of its date than
written documents, which have more than once been
proved to be incorrect or to have been misinterpreted,
by the evidence of decorative style in the work under
discussion. The character and relations of the ornament
of different countries, peoples and times have often af-
forded valuable suggestions, confirmations or corrections
as to the historic movements and relations of these peo-
ples, and an index of their advancement in civilization.
The history of ornament is thus an important division
of the general history of civilization.
Method of this History.
The history of ornament may be treated according
to either of two methods. By one of these the origin
and development of the dominant motives of ornament
are taken up in succession, each of these being traced
through all of the styles in which it is formed.1 By the
other, which is followed in this volume, attention is di-
rected to the origin and development of the historic
styles of ornament, all the various motives, kinds and
types of ornament of each country and period being
considered in discussing the style of that time and re-
gion. In this volume we shall treat of the styles of
ancient and medieval art, leaving the Oriental and mod-
ern styles to be treated in another volume.
Summary of the Sequence of Styles.
Geographically as well as chronologically, this study
i This is the method followed by Mr. G. A. T. Middleton in his "Motives of
Ornament" (New York, 1914) and by myself in a series of papers on the "De-
velopment of Decorative Motives" in the "American Architect," 1898-1901.
15


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
begins with Egyptian art in the Nile Valley. The art
of early Chaldea in the valley of the Tigris-Euphrates,
though rivaling that of Egypt in its antiquity, is less im-
portant in the domain of ornament than the Egyptian,
and less important also than that of Assyria, which de-
veloped later in the same river basin. Greek art both
inherited and borrowed from both these arts; little, per-
haps, directly, but much through the intermediate arts of
Phenicia and of the early Mediterranean cultures in
Crete, Mycenae, and other ^Egean centers. All these
borrowed elements were completely transformed in
Greek art, whose developed forms passed into Roman
art and were again transformed by the Roman genius.
Greek and Roman art have tinged that of all subsequent
ages among the European and Western nations. The
growth of Christianity after the fall of Rome developed
new centers of civilization and new conceptions in art,
giving rise to Byzantine art in the East and to Roman-
esque and Gothic art in the West. For a thousand
years the forms of Roman art appeared to be forgotten,
except for faint reminiscences of them in Italy. Yet
like the Egyptian wheat, buried with a mummy but
springing to life after a score of centuries in the tomb,
the vital elements of Roman art revived with the
Renaissance of classic studies in the fifteenth century
in Italy, and have largely dominated Western art ever
since.
Meanwhile in the Orient other ideals have prevailed,
and although the Mohammedan nations have in each
case founded their art on that of the Christian peoples
they have conquered, they have developed it under the
16


INTRODUCTORY
dominion of their own ideals into something quite apart
from Western art. China and Japan have also their
own independent though related styles of decoration;
while the decorative art of the non-Moslem Hindus rep-
resents another group of styles remote in character from
those of Europe.
The problem of early American art in Peru, Central
America and Mexico is one of great uncertainty and
the subject of no little controversy. The art of these
countries offers one of the richest as well as most diffi-
cult fields for architectural exploration and study. The
expeditions conducted by Professor Bingham of Yale
University have added much to our knowledge of the
monuments; but the subject has not yet entered the
domain of precise history, and must lie outside the scope
of a manual like this.
Books Recommended.
[The bibliography of ornament is so extensive, and includes
so many works of doubtful value to the student, that an ex-
haustive list of books on the subject of each chapter of this
work is out of the question. The lists of "Books Recom-
mended" have been made to include the most important works
of reference generally available in the larger libraries of cities
and educational institutions, as well as text-books and hand-
books of a more popular character, in English, French and
German (besides a few in Italian and Spanish). In such a
selected list it will inevitably happen that some titles will be
omitted which, in the reader's judgment, ought to be included,
and others included which might well have been omitted; for
individual judgments must differ in many cases. The author
and the publishers will welcome suggestions for the improve-
ment of these lists in future editions.]
1. On General Theory of Ornament: Bourgoin: Theorie de
Vornement (Paris, 1883).—W. G. Colungwood: Philosophy
17


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
of Ornament (Sunnyside, 1883).—H. Pfeifer: Formenlehre
des Ornaments (Stuttgart, 1906).—Goblet d'Alviella: The
Migration of Symbols (Westminster, 1894).—A. C. Haddon:
Evolution in Art (London, 1895).—A. D. F. Hamlin: Devel-
opment of Decorative Motives (in American Architect, New
York, 1898—1901).—J. Haüselmann: Studien und Ideen über
Ursprung, Wesen und Stil des Ornaments (Zürich, 1889).—
F. E. Hulme: Birth and Development of Ornament (London,
1893).—J. Ranke: Anfänge der Kunst (Berlin, 1879).—Alois
Riegl: Stilfragen; Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der
Ornamentik (Berlin, 1893).—G. Semper: Der Stü in der
technischen Künsten, oder Praktische Aesthetik (Munich, 1878-
79).—G. Sturm: Animals in Ornament (London, 1895).
8. General Handbooks and Collections. Dolmetsch: Der
Ornamentenschatz (Stuttgart, 1889; also an English edition,
London, 1912).—Ebe: Die Schmuckformen der Monumental-
bauten aus allen Stüepochen (Leipzig, 1896).—L. Gaucherel:
Exemples de decoration appliquSe etc. (Paris, 1857).—R.
Glazier: Manual of Historie Ornament (London, 1906).—
Gropius und Lohde: Archiv für ornamentale Kunst etc. (Ber-
lin, 1876-79).—E. J. B. Guillaume: Histoire de Vart et de
Vornement (Paris, 1888).—D. Guilmard: La connaissance des
styles de Vornementation (Paris, 1849).—A German edition of
the same under the title Geschichte der Ornamentik (Berlin,
1860).—J. Haüselmann: Die Stylarten des Ornaments in den
verschiedenen Kunstepochen (Zürich, 1882).—J. E. Jacob-
sthal: Grammatik der Ornamente (Berlin, 1874; with large
wall-plates for class use).—Owen Jones: Grammar of Orna-
ment (London, 1857; new edition, smaller size, London, 1910).
—F. K. Klimsch: Ornaments (London, n. d.).—Mechin: Dic-
tionnaire de l'art ornemental de tous les styles (Paris, 1888—91).
—F. S. Meyer: Ornamentale Formenlehre (Leipzig, 1886):
English edition under title Handbook of Ornament (New York,
1898?).—R. Newberry: Gleanings from Ornamental Art of
Every Style (London, 1863).—R. Pfnor: Ornementation
usuelle de toutes les epoques (Paris, 1866-68).—A. Racinet:
L'Ornement polychrome (Paris, 1869—87).—H. Shaw: En-
cyclopaedia of Ornament (London, 1842).—J. B. Waring: Il-
lustrations of Architecture and Ornament (London, 1871).—
18


INTRODUCTORY
J. Ward: Historic Ornament (London, 1898). —G. E. Wes-
sely: Das Ornament und die Kunstindustrie in ihrer geschicht-
liche Entwickelung (Berlin, 1877).
In the above list the Grammar of Ornament of Owen Jones
and Ornement Polychrome of Racinet are monumental collec-
tions of decorative designs in color, veritable encyclopaedias
of ornament of all kinds except the architectural, of which there
are only a few examples in Owen Jones, and none in Racinet.
The Dolmetsch collection, second only to the above two in rich-
ness and elegance of presentation, contains a fair proportion
of illustrations from architecture. Meyer's Handbook of
Ornament is another standard collection, arranged not by styles
but by topics and categories of subjects. Glazier's Manual
of Historic Ornament is excellent as far as it goes, but its
modest size makes impossible a complete presentation of any
of the styles. Speltz's Styles of Ornament is the most compre-
hensive of all the smaller collections, covering all the styles
both of architectural and industrial ornament with a wealth
of illustrations in black-and-white. The new edition, revised
by R. Phene Spiers, of London, is especially recommended.
The Prang Educational Company publish an excellent series
of Plates of Historic Ornament, in color, based on a series orig-
inally edited by the late Professor W. R. Ware.
19


CHAPTER II
PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
The Origins.
When and how did decorative art first begin? The
question can never receive a final and complete answer,
since the oldest extant specimens of ornamental art,
dating back to the palaeolithic age, betray a skill which
points to beginnings in a still more remote past.
The dagger-handle of carved reindeer bone in Figure
15, representing a wounded fawn, is a surprisingly skil-
ful adaptation of naturalistic representation to decora-
tive use; it dates from the neolithic period of the Stone
Age. Chipped flint knives and remarkably life-like
sketches of animals engraved on bone, including the
prehistoric mammoth, found in strata of great antiquity,
likewise suggest long antecedent periods of training.
The answer to our query is generally sought by
anthropologists in the work and processes of modern
savage tribes.1 The most generally accepted theory is
that which derives the earliest ornament from primitive
superstitions. The savage—and presumably primitive
man did likewise—instinctively animates or personifies
all the forces and most of the phenomena of Nature.
i Consult however the query raised by Dr. Talcott Williams in a paper
printed in the "Report of the Smithsonian Institution" for 1896 entitled,
"Was Primitive Man a Modern Savage?"
20


PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
He fails to distinguish clearly between the real and the
imagined, the animate and inanimate, and ascribes to
fancied resemblances the qualities of the thing re-
sembled. Hence he seeks to portray, imitate or suggest
whatever force or thing he wishes to have or control, as-
cribing to these caricatures the powers of their originals.
An eye painted on a canoe gives the canoe and its
owner the power to steer a safe course; a bird on the stern
gives it speed (see Plate II, 21); a human face with a
mouth full of fierce teeth imparts fierceness and cour-
age to the bearer of the weapon or other object on which
it is carved or painted. Figure 17, page 23, illustrates
the head of a Mangaia (New Zealand) ceremonial spear
to be borne by a chief: it represents, inverted, a tongue
protruding from a mouth set with sharp teeth beneath
two huge eyes. The protruding tongue signifies defi-
ance; the teeth, ferocity; the eyes, keen vision; together
they constitute a powerful amulet, magically endowing
the chief with bravery, ferocity and far-sightedness.
But it will be noted that the entire representation is dec-
oratively effective; indeed, the decorative purpose quite
overmasters all idea of naturalistic portrayal. A like
purpose is observed in the Papuan "manhood belts"
(Figure 18), on which the scratched patterns of human
features are fetishes imparting to the wearer the manly
qualities they symbolize.
Such a representation is called a fetish, and the super-
stition to which it is due, fetishism. It is one manifesta-
tion of what is generically known as animism, of which
another form is totemism. Among certain tribes, as in
Alaska, each family or clan has its own animal or other
21


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
object not merely as a heraldic symbol, but as a posses-
sion conferring its qualities on the whole clan: such a
symbol is called a totem. An Alaskan totem-pole,
like the quarterings of a coat-of-arms, portrays the
pedigree and relationships of the occupants of the tent or
tepee before which it stands. According to the animis-
tic theory, therefore, primitive and savage ornament is
believed to have grown up out of the carving or painting
or weaving of fetishes and totems primarily for the
sake of their magical use. This practice in time awak-
ened the rudimentary decorative instinct; and this in-
stinct asserting itself with constantly increasing force
has led to the progressive modification of the original
semi-naturalistic forms until they are often no longer
recognizable as such, as in Figures 17, 18 and 24
(page 23); Figure 24 showing patterns derived from the
head of the frigate-bird.
The Technic Theory.
Another theory attributes the awakening of the
decorative instinct to the processes and results of primi-
tive industries, especially pottery, basketry and weav-
ing. In these industries there occur inevitably cer-
tain rhythmical repetitions and alternations of form or
color which are in themselves decorative. Thus in
grass-weaving and basketry, if grasses of two colors are
alternately plaited or woven together a checker pattern
results, while simple variations in the plaiting produce
plaids, quadrangles, stepped triangles and crosses
(Figure 19). The awakened decorative instinct seizes
upon these effects and develops them purposefully. It
22



Tirsayan JarCMexio)
Chiriqui Jndian/llligatoHbrms.
a*-&>r& ess
iSFtimtme dagger-handle. lbJ4ew2£oland\ikiiild"molive.iTJ4aori sp^>rhead.id-Bpuanface-nwliiei
19. daskelry forma Sto.Ut. fkrmian animal motivei. 22, Maori andHawaiian carvings. 23 Bra-
zilian Qmss<hfhpatterns.2A,Rxpuonfrigatebird'foms75J1aori'flultcmam«nt.26MmBiaxiJ-
23


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
then begins to appropriate for decorative use fetish and
totem forms (Figures 20, 21, 24, 28) and adds to these
other nature forms, which it eventually uses as pure
ornament, with little or no regard for magical intent.
Figure 16 shows in a an apparently conventional orna-
ment thus derived from the New Zealand totem-figures
of women shown in b, which represent the pedigrees of
New Zealand chiefs in the female line. The technic of
wood-notching has converted these figures into the orna-
ment known as the tiki-tiki-tangata.
It seems likely that both theories are measurably cor-
rect and must be jointly invoked to explain the begin-
nings of ornament. The discovery and development of
motives originating in technical processes and the de-
velopment of nature-forms through animistic impulses
have probably been concurrent. It seems quite clear
that nearly all spirals, zigzags, plaids, lozenges, and
many other geometric motives, have originated in the
processes of weaving,
plaiting and string-lash-
ing. Even the fact that
modern savage tribes
call these motives by the
names of animals, winds,
etc., does not prove their
Fio. 29. detah prom Maori Paddlb animistic origin. Thus
in plait i, 2i. in Yigure 23 the Indians
of Central Brazil call a the tunny-fish pattern, b the liz-
ard pattern, and c and d bat-patterns! All four patterns
were probably technomorphic in origin, and received
these names as afterthought explanations of their origin

24


PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
and meaning. For primitive man is always a myth-
maker, who seeks to explain everything by a story or by
some theory of magic; and the widely different names
given to the same form by different tribes suggest that
their several explanations are invented after the fact, not
handed down by tradition from still more primitive ages.
Character of Savage Ornament.
Its artistic quality is often of a high order, revealing
a keen sense of decorative propriety, a wise choice and
proportioning of means to ends, and great skill in space-
filling (Plates I and II). In boldness and effectiveness
of design it often surpasses the work of more civilized
peoples. If lacking in subtlety and the higher graces of
line and movement, it is often rich, well distributed, and
executed with singular patience and skill. Structural
ornament, in the strictest sense, hardly exists at all;
nearly all savage ornament is pure surface-decoration.
It consists largely of patterns of small motives indefi-
nitely repeated by painting, stamping or weaving, or by
surface carving, so as to cover the whole or a major
part of the object. (Figures 16, 20, 22, 23-27; Plate
I, Nos. 4, 6, 8,13,15, 21, 23.) Here and there appears
a caricature of the head or body of a bird or beast (Plate
II, 19, 20); or even the grotesque head of a man, as in
Fig. 30.
The South Sea Islands.
Among the most interesting developments of savage
decorative art are those of certain Polynesian peoples,
particularly in New Guinea in the north and New Zea-
25


PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
originating in Polynesia, and carried to high perfection
both in New Guinea and New Zealand. Some of the
tattoo-patterns appear to be purely decorative, conform-
ing to the facial modeling; others have a definite signifi-
cance as fetishes or as totems.
Primitive American Ornament.
Basketry, weaving and pottery are the chief indus-
tries of the primitive and ancient peoples of South and
Central America, Mexico and the southwestern regions
of the United States. The pottery of these countries
is particularly abundant and interesting. As Peru,
Central America and Mexico were the seats of a highly
developed civilization centuries before the Spanish con-
quest, the art of those ages has no place in a discussion
of primitive and savage ornament. While the begin-
nings have been made in the working out of the Mayan
and Aztec chronologies, we must await the decipherment
of their written records before we can write the history
and chronology of the Peruvian, Mexican and Central
American art of antiquity, many of whose monuments
have long been known, and others more recently discov-
ered by the Yale expeditions under Professor Bingham.
Until these problems have been worked out it will be
impossible to determine the historical relation of such
advanced decorative art as is shown in Plate II, 2, 3
and 7, to the more modern pottery shown on the same
plate.
Both the Mexican and the Zufii and Pueblo pot-
tery show great fondness for the spiral (Figs. 81, 32;
27


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Plate II, 8,11,13). According to W. H. Holmes this
is due to the derivation of all American pottery from
primitive processes of building up the vessel with suc-
cessive spiral coils of clay "rope," which process in turn
is derived from coiled basketry (see Plate II, 12, a
Washoe basket-bowl). This theory is borne out by the
occurrence of many
basketry patterns in
Bolivian and other pot-
tery. But the Peruvian
spirals in Plate II, 14,
may be derived from
the coiled snake (II,
16). The spiral is
common in Pueblo
pottery; Fig. 31 a
shows an example,
which curiously resem-
bles an ancient jar (re-
versed) from Budmer in Bosnia, illustrated in Hoerner's
"Urgeschichte." The spiral b is an enlarged detail from
the jar in Plate II, 8. In the same plate the illustra-
tions 5 and 8 offer curious analogies to early Greek
pottery-omamentation. Such resemblances, probably
wholly fortuitous, have given rise to many specula-
tions as to the origin of the ancient American civiliza-
tions.3
The modern American Indians, especially those of the
» All of the illustrations in Plate II are from sketches made in the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History in New York, which possesses a superb
collection, in its Anthropological section, of examples of primitive art, both
American and foreign.

Fio. 31. a, Pueblo Jab; b, Detail fbom
Plate II, 8; c, Pbehistoric Jab fbom
Bosnia.
28


PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
Southwest, are clever potters and particularly skilful
in basketry. The blankets, baskets and beadwork of
many other Indian tribes are rich in decorative sugges-
tion, and will be increasingly val-
ued as these arts tend to disap-
pear with advancing civilization.
The examples shown in these
figures and plates can by no
means adequately illustrate the
richness and variety of savage
and primitive ornament; they
can only suggest its general
character. Every tribe has its
own special products and pat-
terns; to some extent they Fl°- w- Mexican Jab.
mingle and overlap through commerce and migration.
They seem to have been but little modified in style by
the contact of civilization, though this contact is apt to
result in the disappearance of the native art and the
substitution of manufactured foreign products.
Summary of Characteristics.
The main characteristics of savage art may be briefly
summarized as follows:
I. Geometric ideals control generally both the distri-
bution and details of the decoration.
II. Natural forms are invariably of magical signifi-
cance. They converge towards the technomorphic
treatment because the savage cares nothing for accuracy
of representation, provided the type is recognizable; and

29


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
exaggeration and caricature resulting from the influ-
ence of materials and tools do not destroy the type. The
technomorphic geometrization of details is a natural re-
sult of the processes of their production.
III. Of many motives it cannot be determined
whether the origin is animistic or technomorphic. Na-
tive identifications and explanations of form are by no
means always trustworthy.
IV. The zigzag, quadrilateral, fret and spiral ap-
pear in nearly all savage styles, though the coil and
spiral are wanting in certain defined districts in the
South Seas.
V. Savage ornament is almost wholly surface orna-
ment, in which general effect is the chief concern and is
produced by a disposition of parts almost always judi-
cious and artistic. It is usually composed of minute
motives, more or less crowded. The higher qualities of
grace, refined curvature and rhythmic movement, and
highly organized and complex composition, are gener-
ally wanting. In short, the pursuit of an unattained
ideal and the progress that results from it, do not ap-
pear in savage art, which remains content with its past
which it reproduces with variations but without con-
sistent advance.
Books Recommended.
As before, the general collections of Dolmetsch, Glazier,
Owen Jones, Racinet and Speltz.—Also, H. Balfouk: The
Evolution of Decorative Art (London, 1893).—A. C. Haddon:
Evolution in Art (especially for Polynesian art: London,
1895).—J. Ranke: Anfdnge der Kunst (Berlin, 1879).—H.
Stolpe: Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples
SO


PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT
(Trans. Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society, 1891); Stur-
dier i americansk Ornamentik (Stockholm, 1896).—E. B. Ty-
lob: Primitive Culture (London).—Consult also W. H.
Holmes: Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in
Ceramic Art in Fourth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology
(Washington, 1886).
81


CHAPTER III
EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
"Egypt is the oldest daughter of civilization";1 "a
lighthouse in the profound darkness of remote an-
tiquity." 2
Land and People.
The valley of the Nile was the birthplace of historic
civilization, so far, at least, as extant evidence can de-
termine it. The history of Chaldea carries us back, it
is true, six or seven thousand years, but the oldest monu-
ments of Egypt point to a long precedent development,
the beginnings of which are lost in the mists of antiquity.
It is, however, outside of our purpose to study this twi-
light age of Egyptian art. Of the thirty dynasties
enumerated by Manetho, the first reigned in Memphis in
Lower Egypt at a date variously estimated at from 3600
to 4500 years B.C., over a well organized kingdom
possessed of cities, a priesthood, established grades of
society, and other features of a developed civilization.
Hemmed in between the wall-like cliffs of the Nile val-
ley, this kingdom flourished for some thousands of years
the one civilized nation in a vast world of barbarous
nations, developing unaided her own arts and supported
1 Perrot & Chipiez, "History of Ancient Art"; vol. I, page 1.
2 Renan, quoted by Perrot & Chipiez; ibid., page 19.
32


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
by the inexhaustible f ertility of the Nile mud. Herodo-
tus rightly called Egypt "the gift of the Nile," which
became to the Egyptians a source of endless symbols and
cosmic-religious ideas.
Within this valley the
Egyptians were long
untouched by foreign
influences, and the ap-
parent changelessness
of Egyptian art is one
of its most striking
characteristics.
The government of
Egypt was an autoc-
racy, and society was
divided into castes,
with the priest-caste
at its head. To this
caste belonged the
king, who was deified
after death. The re-
ligion, grossly idola-
trous in its lowest pop-
ular form, and polytheistic in its highest phases as un-
derstood by the educated priest-caste, possessed many
lofty spiritual conceptions underlying its externally
complex mythology. Particularly important were its
solar deities Amen or Ra, identified with the sun;
Osiris and his sister-spouse Isis or Hathor, and Horus
their son. The ideas of death and immortality were con-
spicuous, making sepulchral art the most important

Detail op Sarcophagus op
Menkauea.
33


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
branch of design next to temple architecture. Primitive
fetish-conceptions never wholly disappeared; Maspero
declared that "every Egyptian ornament was a talis-
man," and symbolism characterized every detail of
decorative art. The tombs, designed to be inviolable so
far as the intention of their designers was concerned,
and hermetically sealed against the entrance of the liv-
ing, were internally decorated with pictures of scenes,
objects and pursuits which, it was believed, would be-
come realities to the Ka, the shadowy "double" or half-
spirit of the deceased, who could thus enjoy the pleasures
of feasting and the chase while imprisoned in the tomb,
awaiting final release by the judgment of Osiris and his
forty assessors. It is from these tombs and from the
sarcophagi (Fig. 33) and mummy-cases found in them
that a large part of our knowledge of Egyptian life and
decorative art have been derived.
Influence of Climate.
Except during the short rainy season the Egyptian
sky is cloudless, the sun intensely brilliant. Mists, half-
lights, soft gray tones and delicate tints such as northern
lands and artists know and love, are here unknown. In
the blazing sun and black shadows delicate relief and
subtle modulations of surface would be lost. Hence
strong and bold relief are necessary out of doors: while
both there and in the dim interiors color is essential for
decorative effectiveness. Egyptian ornament is pre-
eminently an ornament of color. The dryness of the
air and the absence of frost result in a permanence which
cannot be secured in other climates. Wood and cloth
si


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
seem in Egypt as imperishable as stone and bronze.
Hence an influence towards slowness of change, towards
permanence both of types and details, which exists no-
where else.
Materials.
There is almost no timber in Egypt, and where stone
was lacking, or was unsuitable or too costly, mud or
clay served as the building material, often with a frame-
work of reeds or stiff papyrus-stalks bound together to
form posts and beams. The palm was the principal tree,
with the sycamore for occasional use in cabinet-work.
The painted representations of framed woodwork al-
ways show long and narrow panels, such as could be
framed with long thin pieces from the palm-trunk
(Fig. 33). Marvelous was the decorative art which
grew up under these limitations. Pottery, glass, enamel
and metal-work in copper, bronze and gold were all
known to the Egyptians from an early age, and weav-
ing of "fine twined linen," embroidery and the tanning
of leather were also practised.
Historic Periods.
Without going into details, we may divide the history
of Egyptian art into six periods. I, The Prehistoric
Age. II, the Old or First Empire, comprising the first
ten dynasties; this is the age of the Great Pyramids and
of the earliest tombs, from 3400 B.C.3 to 2160 B.C. Ill,
The Middle or First Theban Empire, two dynasties,
s These dates are those of Breasted. Some other authorities assign much
earlier dates to the Old Empire.
35


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
2160 to 1788 b.c. IV, The New or Second Theban
Empire, the 18th-20th dynasties inclusive, 1588-1150
B.C. This is the great age of Egyptian history, the most
splendid in its temples and tombs, as well as in war
and conquest. It followed a period of two centuries of
artistic sterility under five foreign dynasties called the
Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. V, the Saitic and Persian
Period, comprising the dynasties 21 to 26 inclusive, and
the Persian rule which began in 525 B.C.: from 1150 to
324 B.C. VI, the Revival or Ptolemaic Period, under
the Macedonian Ptolemies and the Roman dominion:
324 B.C. to 330 a.d. The first half of this period was
one of revived artistic activity after a long decline.
Prehistoric Ornament.
It is only within recent
years that the pre-Pharaonic
art of Egypt has become
known by a sufficient number
of examples to permit of
assigning any dates or se-
quences of style. Discoveries
at Koptos, Nagada and Aby-
dos since 1893 have unearth-
ed the products of long ages
before the first dynasty—
crude painted statuettes of
earthenware, ivory pins and
combs, spoons and rings, flint
Fio. 34. Prehistoric Slate Pa- knives with ivory gold-
i*tte in Tins Lotm*. plated handles, vases of pot-

36


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
tery and slate palettes or ink-mixers (Fig. 34). In
none of these is there evidence of a developed decorative
style, zigzags and a few crude patterns derived from
basketry being almost the only pure ornaments. There
is, however, considerable imitation of Nature, more and
more realistic and correct as one approaches historic
times. Religion and magic account for much of this
naturalism. The slate palette from the Louvre shown
in Fig. 34 is in its motive so like many "Sacred Tree"
compositions from Assyria in which a tree is flanked by
erect monsters or human figures, that some authorities
refer it to prehistoric Chaldean influence. On the
other hand, the entire Asiatic series of figures of beasts
facing a central tree or shaft may have originated in
Egypt. On the whole these finds throw little fight on
the origins and early development of the historic orna-
ment of Egypt.
Historic Ornament; General Survey.
The historic ornament of Egypt may be dated as ex-
tending from about 3500 B.C., the date of the earliest
examples in the collections, down to the Christian era.
From the Old Empire the remains are almost wholly
of sepulchral and industrial art—scarabs (Fig. 53),
mummy-cases, jewelry, furniture and tomb decorations.
The Middle Empire has bequeathed us a few examples
of its architecture, but the great architectural age is that
of the New Empire, though the Ptolemaic is also rich
in this field. The Middle and New Empire periods
have also left us many examples of sepulchral art. This
entire body of decorative art, covering a period of be-
37


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
tween three and four thousand years, shows an ex-
traordinary continuity and uniformity of character and
spirit, in spite of the progress observable when it is
closely studied. Egyptian art is marked by a highly
developed decorative sense which rarely fails to employ
both form and color in the most effective and appropri-
ate manner. The influence of symbolism and of sur-
viving traditions of magic is everywhere observable,
though the symbolic significance of the forms used was
probably by no means always a controlling influence in
the design. In many cases it may not have been at all
consciously present in the mind of the designer.
Sources and Motives.
The Egyptians employed both geometric and natural
forms, the latter always more or less conventionalized.
The geometric motives were no doubt chiefly of technic
origin, the natural forms magical or symbolic. The con-
ventionalizing tendency was always strong, even m
purely pictorial and representative paint-
ing and sculpture, largely from the influ-
ence of heiratic formulae and traditions in
sepulchral and temple decoration. In
ornament there is rarely any attempt to
picture natural objects realistically. Thus
the lotus (Figure 36, page 47), which ap-
pears in Nature as at a, is usually depicted fig. 35.
in side-elevation, greatly simplified, as at b A op
and c; and a dish of fruit is shown partly
in plan and partly in elevation, the two combined in one
representation (Fig. 35). Human figures are drawn

38


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
with the head in profile, the shoulders in front view, and
the legs and feet in side view, both feet planted squarely
on the ground, one behind the other.
Besides the classes of ornament above described, there
is the important category of architectural ornament.
This consists largely of conventionalized Nature-forms,
with only a comparatively limited list of really structural
motives.
General Character.
Egyptian ornament is characterized by a certain
rigidity and formality of character, which permitted of
only a very slow and gradual evolution; there is no such
marked change of style, previous at least to the Ptole-
maic age, as marks for instance the development of
Greek or of Gothic ornament. But there is an ex-
traordinary variety of detail in the treatment of a some-
what limited stock of fundamental motives. It is pre-
dominantly an art of surface-decoration by color: the
range of structural and architectural forms is very
narrow. Color was largely depended upon for the
decoration of buildings as well as of movable objects,
and color was used with admirable judgment for decora-
tive effects. The colors chiefly used were red, yellow,
blue and green, with black and white occasionally as
foils; these colors are seldom the pure colors of the
spectrum or their nearest pigment analogies, but "re-
duced" tones or shades, the red verging towards the red-
brown; the yellow a warm tone such as is produced by
tinging yellow ochre with burnt-sienna; the blue com-
monly of a dark shade, the green ranging from a sap-
39


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
green to a dark olive. There are of course exceptions,
especially in enamels and glass, but they only emphasize
the prevailing sobriety and richness of the color in other
works. The use of gold in decoration was very sparing.
Nature Forms.
Both plant and animal forms were used in Egyptian
ornament. The animal forms—chiefly the vulture or
hawk, and the uraeus or cobra, together with wings
and feathers—were almost invariably religious or sym-
bolic. So also was probably the lotus and perhaps also
the papyrus among vegetable forms; most of the other
plants and flowers that occur seem to have been used
for purely decorative reasons.
The Lotus.
This has been called the sacred flower4 of Egypt
(Figure 36); it was the largest and most beautiful of
flowers known to that land, and figured prominently in
both royal and religious ceremonies. As a product of
the life-giving, wealth-bestowing Nile it was symbolic
both of that river and of the solar divinities which ruled
the river's inundations and imparted to it its fertility
and life-renewing powers. It is shown in the hands of
kings and gods; laid as an offering on altars and tied to
the tops of posts and columns. It figures in the capitals
of columns and is made the basis of endlessly varied
borders and all-over patterns. Professor Goodyear in
♦ Flinders Petrie, however, denies its sacred and symbolic significance
("Egyptian Decorative Art," page 106).
40


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
his "Grammar of the Lotus" has endeavored to prove
that all Egyptian ornament is based on the lotus and that
since all classic ornament can be traced back ultimately
to Egypt, and most later styles to the classic, the lotus
must be considered to be the parent of nearly all historic
ornament. This is surely carrying the thesis too far,
but it is undeniable that a very considerable part of
Egyptian ornament is of lotus origin, while many forms
not lotuses at all, converged towards the lotus type, so
that the lotus influence is traceable far beyond the area
of actual lotus derivations.
The Egyptian lotuses used in decoration were the
nymphcea lotus and the nymphcea cerulcea—respec-
tively the white and blue lotus. The rose lotus (nelum-
bium) was probably not known till a late date. The
Nile lotus is a large water-lily, with four green sepals
and a corolla of white or blue petals surrounding the
yellow central group of stamens and pistils (Figure
36, a). It was represented usually in side-elevation,
showing three sepals and usually six petals. The bud
was shown with only two sepals visible, and sometimes
with no division of sepals at all. The outline of" the
open flower was either trumpet-shaped, bell-shaped or
rectilinear. A derived form was the trilobe, in which
the petals were omitted, and the two lateral sepals curled
over into volutes; but by a decorative inconsistency, a
second set of sepals frequently adorned the trilobe
(Fig. 37, c,e).
As a border ornament, the lotus was alternated with
the bud, usually in a pendant position, perhaps in imi-
41


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
tation of, or convergence towards, fringes of tassels;
and with these alternating forms were combined round
dots, loops and other details whose meaning is not ob-
vious (Figure 38). In late work the lotus-bud is often
replaced by bunches of grapes or by nondescript forms
generally recalling the oval outline of the bud (Figures
38, 39).
The lotus was also frequently used as an isolated

Fig. 37. Lotus Forms; a, Full Floweb; b-e, Tbilobe Fobms.
motive, as on paddles, vases and other objects; and as
a terminal ornament, e.g., to adorn the prow or stern
of a boat (Figure 36, c), or to form the capital of a
column (Plate III, 10, 19). Many writers consider
Egyptian rosettes in general to be representations in
plan of the open lotus, or even of the seed vessel of the
flower, but Flinders-Petrie has shown5 that many
rosettes are plainly representations of other flowers, and
that others are probably of technic origin. Some
rosettes are, however, unmistakably lotus rosettes
(Figure 40, page 47).
The lotus figures in many all-over patterns in associa-
tion with the spiral (Figure 41, page 47). The archi-
tectural uses of the lotus are discussed later.
• "Egyptian Decorative Art," page 58.
42


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT

Fio. 42. The Papyrus
in Nature.
Other Plant Forms.
The papyrus (Fig. 42) is the most important of
these. Its straight, stiff triangular
stem with four root-leaves wrapping
its slightly swelling base, is imitated
in the clustered shafts of many col-
umns (Plate III, 11), and painted
as a decoration on walls and on bell-
capitals, often alternating with con-
ventional lotuses (Figures 43, 45,
Fig. 46). The stem bears a bunch of
tiny flowers, forming with their
stems a group of green filaments
with reddish tops, growing out of a calyx of four leaves
or bracts. These supply the
suggestion for many bell-shaped
forms in ornament (Figure
47), including the great cam-
paniform capitals of huge col-
umns like those of the Karnak
hypostyle hall (Figure 43;
Plate III, 10).8
The daisy, convolvulus,
grapes, and thistle occur in
ornament; also other plant forms not always recogniz-
able. Many rosette and leaf forms are probably mere
conventional ornament types, not intended to portray
particular plants. The spiked ornament of Figure 44
«In the "Grammar of the Lotus," Prof. Goodyear claims as lotus-forms a
host of ornament motives and pictorial representations plainly derived from
the papyrus. There are, it is true, many forms in which, by convergence, the
two types are blended in one.

Fio.
46. Campaniform Cap-
ital, Karnak.
43


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
is identified by Flinders-Petrie as well as Goodyear, as
a lotus with the central sepal exaggerated. This does
not seem convincing: it is too persistent and uniform
a motive in late art, and too unlike the lotus to warrant
this explanation without strong proof, and may repre-
sent some aquatic plant not now existent in the Nile
valley. The palm appears in capitals during and after
the XVIIIth dynasty, and is frequent in Ptolemaic and
Roman work (Fig. 64, c, page 50; Plate III, 17).
Animal Forms.
The vulture, with widespread wings, symbolizing pro-
tection and maternal care, is a frequent and a splendid
decoration of temple ceilings, and appears in many
other applications (Figure 57; Plate III, 20, 23). The
wings alone, with the sun-disk significant of Ra, are
still more frequent, especially over the gateways or
entrances of temples (Figure 58). The urceus or
cobra is a symbol of death, hence of the royal power of
life and death, and hence of royalty itself. It decorates
the winged disk (Figure 58), the royal head-dress, and
the cornices of certain buildings; especially in the
Ptolemaic age, of the front screen-walls of the hypostyle
halls (Figure 59). The scarabceus or
beetle is rarely a purely ornamental mo-
tive, but appears isolated on mummy-
cases and elsewhere, as a symbol of crea-
tion and life, and was the commonest of
amulets (Fig. 53). It is occasionally
found in late all-overs, as in Plate III A.
The head of Hathor was used as a sym-

Fio. 58. Scara-
bceus A mulet
(Reverse).
44


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
bolic decoration on columns, especially in the Ptolemaic
age (Plate III, 9). The sphinw, a symbolic compound
of lion's body with human head (an-
drosphinw) or a sculptured ram
(criosphinx), was employed to line
the dromos or avenue leading to a
temple, and is occasionally found
executed in bronze, basalt or diorite,
of small size, perhaps as an amulet.
But the sphinx belongs rather to
sculpture than to ornament. Feath-
ers appear not only in representa-
tions of great fans or royal insignia,
but in the form of scale-like ornament
or imbrications (Fig. 61, b; Plate III, 21, 22), which
may be derived from the actual use of feathers in cloth-
ing. Figure 60 may represent fans, or highly conven-
tional lotus forms.

Fig. 61. Zigzags; b,
Imbrications; c, Chev-
rons.
Conventional or Geometric Motives.
These are of the greatest variety, and are used with
consummate skill, sometimes alone, very often in com-
bination with flower-forms, especially the lotus. Fig.
61 a illustrates one of many effective examples of the
decorative use of simple straight lines. The zigzag
occurs with great frequency; it is used often to repre-
sent water on the Nile, but may not always have had this
significance. Associated with the zigzag is the chevron
(Fig. 61, c). Opposed zigzags produce lozenges or
diamonds, and occur in simple all-over patterns (Figure
50). It is quite likely that all these are primarily of
45


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
technic origin, from basketwork and weaving. Plaids
and check-patterns are undoubtedly technomorphs. In
the tombs of Ti and of Ptah Hotep at Sakkarah, mat-
tings of plaited rushes or straw are plainly represented
as filling the panels of the walls, with patterns of great
variety in checks, quarries and zigzags.
The circle was the basis of a great number of patterns,
and intersecting circles forming four-petaled flowers or
stars are very common (Figure 52; Plate III, 16, 18).
Rosettes are found in unlimited variety. It is impos-
sible to affirm in every case whether they are purely
geometric and conventional, or floral, or technomor-
phic: nor is their origin important except as affecting
theories of esthetics and psychology. In many designs
they are clearly floral: a beautiful rosette is formed by
four spreading lotuses alternating with lotus buds about
a common center (Figure 40).
The spiral, though not as important in Egyptian
ornament as later it became in Greek art, was much used
both in linear and all-over patterns. Its earliest occur-
rence is on scarabs or seals of the very early dynasties,
where it appears merely as a decorative space-filler
(Fig. 53) or border. It is not frequent on large ob-
jects until the XVIIIth dynasty; it is one of the com-
monest decorative motives thenceforward, until the
Decline. It appears occasionally as a current scroll or
"Greek wave" (Figure 51). Its most frequent use
is in all-over patterns on textiles (or painted represen-
tations of them), and on ceilings in the tombs. Quarries
are formed by four (rarely three) lines winding spirally
about each of a series of dots arranged in diagonally
46



47


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
intersecting rows. The angles are often filled with
lotus-blossoms, and the quadrilateral spaces with ro-
settes, lozenges or other motives (Figures 41, 48; Plate
III, 7, 8). A variant pattern is formed by series of C-
shaped links or volutes in horizontal and vertical pairs.
Another variant is seen in patterns of opposed vertical
rows of S-scrolls forming lyre-shaped spaces as in
Figure 41 and Plate III, 8.
Fret patterns are the angular or rectilinear counter-
parts of spiral patterns, though the quadruple con-
vergence on the points of a mesh is rare (Figure 49,
which is the counterpart of Figure 48). The fret is
but rarely met with as a border-pattern. It will be
noted that the pattern in Figure 49 is formed by two
intersecting line-motives, and that it produces a series
of "swastikas." There is no evidence, however, that the
swastika, as a separate motive or as a symbol was used
or even known in Egypt. Its occurrence in these pat-
terns is purely fortuitous (Plate III, 12,14).
The Palmette.
This is the name given to an ornament which occurs
in Egyptian, Assyrian, Phenician, Cypriote and Greek
art, in almost countless variations, and of which the
Greek anthemion is the direct derivative. It consists
(Figures 54, 55, 56) of a group of diverging leaves or
petals springing from between two spirals; it is pre-
dominantly used as an isolated or terminal motive in
Egyptian art. An early example is a gold jewel from
the IVth dynasty (Figure 55, a); later examples are
shown in Figures 55, b, 56. The origin and significance
48


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
of this ornament are not fully determined. All author-
ities agree that it is a lotus-motive, but how the particular
combination of a species of semi-rosette with a trilobe
lotus came about and what it meant are not wholly clear.
One theory makes it a half-plan of the flower above an
elevation of the same 7 (see ante, Fig. 35); another
sees in it the symbol of the rising sun or Horus, over the
lotus or Nile. The spiked flower-motive in Figure 44
may perhaps be a variation of the palmette rather than
of the lotus or of an unknown aquatic plant. It is not
to be confounded with representations of ceremonial
royal fans, though somewhat resembling them. Pecu-
liar horn-like volutes in some examples (Figure 60) are
probably representations of the third and fourth sepals
of the lotus-calyx. The oval or semicircular object
nesting between the voluted front sepals is probably the
core-body or pericarp of the flower seen between its
sepals; it becomes an essential feature of all the later
and derivative forms persisting through Greek art and,
indeed, through all the ages to our own.
Architectural Forms: Piers, Columns and Cornices.
The architectural forms of Egyptian ornament were
comparatively few and simple. There was no system
of uniform orders like the Greek and Roman; but one
type of cornice, the cavetto cornice, was universal
(Figure 62; Plate III, 9, 11). This was usually orna-
mented with vertical flutings, perhaps as reminiscences
of primitive papyrus-stalk framing, and with a torus at
i F. P., op. ext., page 70; also Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pat-
rim.
49


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fio. 63. Types op Columns.
its base, plainly derived from a bundle of reeds bound
together. This torus was frequently carried down
the corners of pylons and other enclosing walls. A
winged disk invariably
adorned the central
part of the cornice
over all temple door-
ways (Fig. 58).
Columns had shafts
of three types: the
circular or cylindrical,
the clustered, and the
polygonal or proto-
doric (Plate III, 10, 11; Fig. 63, a, b, c). The fisrt
two tapered upward in most cases, and sometimes had
a slight swelling or convexity at the base (Fig. 63, d).
The clustered shafts consisted of four or eight members
(or rarely even more), which were sometimes cylindri-
cal, sometimes formed with an arris or edge (Fig.
63, d). The so-called "proto-doric" columns had from
eight to thirty-two sides, flat or slightly concaved; they
are chiefly found in rock-cut tombs and a few scanty
temple-ruins of the Middle Empire (Fig. 63, c).
The Capitals of columns
were of the greatest variety,
but divisible into a few main
groups: the bud capital,
single or clustered (Fig. 63,
a, b; Plate III, 11); the
bell-shaped or campaniform, single or compound
(Fig. 64, a, b; also Figure 46 and Figure 43; Plate

Fio. 64.
50


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
III, 9,10); the palmiform (Fig.,64, c; Plate III, 17);
and the Hathoric (Plate III, 9). The bud-capital was
the most common; the campaniform appears chiefly in
the central aisles of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak and the
Ramesseum; the compound campaniform, the palmiform
and the Hathoric belong chiefly to the Ptolemaic age,
which produced also various exceptional forms of which
those in Plate III, 15 and 19 are ex-
amples. The bell capital was adorned
with painted petals around its lower
part, and with rows of flowers on erect
green stalks. These are apparently
survivals or elaborations of the green
filaments of the papyrus-head from
which this type of capital is probably
derived8 (Figures 43, 45, 47; Fig. 46;
Plate III, 10). Indeed, many other
features of the Egyptian columns point
to the influence of papyrus origins.
Every shaft, even when cylindrical, is
bound by five or more bands at the top,
a detail evidently derived from the bind-
ing of clustered supports such as
bundles of papyrus stalks; the clustered
shafts often have an edge or arris, like the triangular
stem of the papyrus; the slight swelling at the base,
swathed in leaves, with the upward taper, is a marked
characteristic of the papyrus stalk (see Fig. 42); the
8 Prof. Goodyear in his "Grammar of the Lotus" and elsewhere sharply dis-
putes this view, contending that this capital is derived from the seed-vessel
of the rose-lotus. His authority is weighty, but his arguments not convinc-
ing. See ante, page 43, Note.

Fio. 65. Osikid
Pier, Luxor.
51


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
bound stalks of the bundle-molding plainly point to the
structural use of papyrus stalks in primitive times; and
the bell-shaped cap, striped with green vertical lines
rising from a calyx of leaves, and with its red lip, is the
appropriate architectural interpretation in stone of the
spreading papyrus-head of green filaments rising from
a pseudo-calyx of leaves, and bearing small reddish tops
or heads. The combination of all these features is more
easily and naturally explained by the papyrus origin
than by any other theory. But there is probably con-
vergence towards familiar lotus-types: it is always
dangerous to attempt any narrow and exclusive assign-
ment of origins to decorative forms.
The shafts of simple cylindrical columns were gen-
erally covered with bands of incised and painted
hieroglyphics and pictures, serving both to adorn them
and to give scale to their simple masses (Plate III, 10).
Osirid Piers.
Besides the columns there occur in several temples
square or rectangular piers, often fronted with colossal
sculptured figures of Osirid
holding a scourge and a
"Nile key" or "key of life"
(Fig. 65).
Industrial Arts.
Fig. 66. Painted Pectoral our a The Egyptians practised
Mummy-Case. the ^ Qf ^ goldsmith
and jeweler; not only have we in our museums gold
jewelry of very great antiquity—rings, bracelets, pen-

52


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT
dants, brooches and necklaces (Figures 55, a, 56;—but
we have on mummy-cases and in pictures representa-
tions of necklaces and pectorals of great
splendor (Figure 66). In all these the
lotus, bud, and palmette are constantly
recurring motives. The art of enamel-
ing was understood and practised with
skill, especially for amulets. Glass was
known, was used for vials and small ob-
jects, and was highly prized. Small
objects like spoons and perfume-boxes
were carved in wood, often in highly
artistic designs (Fig. 67; Plate III,
25). Textile art was highly developed,
linen being the chief material. The
figured stuffs, hangings, etc., have per-
ished, but the tomb paintings show us
the designs once employed: some of
these have already been illustrated
(Figures 41, 48, 52; Plate III, 6-8,
12-14. Pottery and earthenware were
produced in large quantities, and were
articles of export, but the product did not compare
either in grace of form or in decoration with the later
ceramic work of the Greeks. Enameled earthenware
was used for the finer bowls, platters, etc., and enameled
tiles were early used in architecture, as around a door
in the stepped pyramid of Sakkarah, but apparently not
in buildings after the Hyksos period. Amulets and
small ornaments were made of enameled earthenware, of
cloisonne enamel on metal (gold or copper), of bronze,

Fig. 67. Cabved
Wooden Spoon.
58


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
and of diorite and other hard stones. Of these amulets
the scarabcei are the most numerous; one side being
modeled to represent the scarabaeus beetle (an emblem
of life after death), the other side, flat, having incised
hieroglyphs and spiral or scroll ornaments.
Not much furniture has been preserved, but the few
extant examples, of sycamore wood, and the very numer-
ous sarcophagi and mummy-wraps and cartonnages,
furnish almost countless examples of painted ornament.
Carved spoons and perfume holders were often highly
elaborate (Fig. 67; Plate III, 25).
Books Recommended:
Flinders-Petrie : Egyptian Decorative Art (London, 1895).
—W. H. Goodyear: Grammar of the Lotus (London, 1891).—
Perrot and Chipiez: Histoire de Vart dans Vantiquite: Egypte
(Paris, 1884); also English edition, History of Ancient Art m
Egypt, trans. W. Armstrong (New York, 1885).—Prisse
d'Avennes: VArt Egyptien (Paris, 1878).—Rosellini:
I Monumenti del Egitto e della Nubia (Pisa, 1832-1844).
04


CHAPTER IV
CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA
The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was
the cradle of a civilization second only to that of Egypt
in antiquity. Indeed, it is believed by some scholars to
reach as far back as that of the Nile Valley, though its
origins are buried in obscurity. The two civilizations
early came into contact with each other, and there are
traces of reciprocal influences between them. The
material remains of Chaldean art are far less rich and
important than those of Egyptian art, and the most
important among them, from the point of view of deco-
rative design, belong to a period when Egyptian art was
already in its decline. Early Chaldean art lasted from
a date reaching back 3000 or 4000 years B.C. to 1250 B.C.,
when the Assyrian power attained the ascendancy. The
Assyrian empire was overthrown 606 B.C. by the second
Chaldean or Babylonian empire, and this in turn suc-
cumbed to the Persians 525 B.C. The most important
monumental art of these three periods is that of the
Sargonidae of Assyria, from 900 to 606 B.C. Recent
excavations by the Germans at Babylon have brought
to light many remains of both the earlier and later
Chaldean empire: but our chief concern is with the prod-
ucts of the Assyrian dominion.
55


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Land and Materials.
From the high table-lands and hills of Northern
Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf, the country is almost
flat, a vast alluvial plain, abounding in clay, extremely
fertile under irrigation, but lacking both stone and
timber. All building was consequently of brick, either
sun-baked or kiln-burned, and chiefly the former.
Timber from the distant mountains or from Syria was
costly and was used but sparingly; fuel was expensive
and burned brick therefore also expensive. Thin slabs
of alabaster or of limestone were the only forms in
which stone could be used, except in rare instances.
These limitations made all architectural art based on
stone construction impossible, and confined decorative
art within narrow limits. Ceramics in the form of bricks
and enameled tiles and pottery; textiles, especially rugs
and hangings, and bronze in small amounts, were the
principal media of artistic expression, although sculp-
ture, chiefly in the form of carving in low relief on
alabaster, was also practised with a skill which is re-
markable when one considers the scarcity and costliness
of stone. Of wood carving there are hardly any ex-
amples.
Early Chaldean Art.
The remains of decorative art from ancient Chaldea
are not numerous. Abundant cylinders and inscribed
bricks, ruins of temples and palaces, a few statues of
kings or deities carved in stone obtained from abroad,
some pottery and a few objects in bronze, make up the
56


CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA
bulk of the product of the excavations carried on in
Niffer (Nippur) the sacred city, in Warka, Mugheir, in
Babylon, and in
other places be-
longing to this em-
pire. The plastic
arts were appar-
ently not in gen-
eral highly devel-
oped. The most
ancient examples
of its architectural
ornament known
are the walls of
Warka (Erech),
formed with ver-
tical reedings and
panels, and covered with a simple mosaic (Fig. 68)
formed of cones of terra cotta driven into their sun-dried
brick facings. The flat exposed bases of these cones,
enameled in various colors, form patterns of lozenges
and zigzags, apparently derived from familiar mattting-
patterns. Flat tiles may have been used in other cases,
but they have all perished.
Assyrian Ornament: Origins and Motives.
Assyrian decoration depended largely on naturalistic
representation: human figures, bulls, lions and other
animals appear frequently, not merely in the great
sculptured pictures on the alabaster wainscot of palace
halls, but in the subordinate decoration of buildings and

Fig. 68. Wall-Mosaic, Warka.
57


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
in the ornament of minor objects. There was also a
large group of motives derived from Egyptian art,
greatly modified oftentimes in treatment but still recog-

Fio. 69. Assybian Ornament Motives.
nizably Egyptian. Another class of motives are in
dispute, but two facts seem clear: first, that the As-
syrians originated little in the way of decorative motives;
and, secondly, that whatever they borrowed underwent a
transformation into something that is purely Assyrian
in character.
The lotus (Fig. 69, a); lotus-palmette (b), and
58


CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA
winged disk or globe (e) are undeniably derived from
Egypt. The rosette (Fig. 69, c) and the guilloche (/)
are common to both Egyptian and Assyrian ornament,
but it is not demonstrated that they were not indepen-
dently invented by the Chaldeans from whom the As-
syrians probably received them.
The chevron (Fig. 69, g) and imbricated or scale
ornaments (d) are peculiarly Assyrian, but as they are
also found in Egyptian art, they belong with the rosette
and guilloche in the doubtful class as to origin. The
so-called "pomegranate" (Fig. 69, h, i) is probably
Chaldean. The pine cone (Fig. 70, a) is an Assyrian
form, but as it conforms in outline and in its occurrence
to the lotus-bud, it may be claimed as a lotus derivative.
The stepped-pyramid, used as a parapet ornament,
seems to be purely Chaldean.
But if the Assyrians borrowed freely from Egypt1
they as freely modified what they borrowed. The lotus
was carved in low relief with sharply pointed, gracefully
curved petals and sepals (Figs. 69, a, 70, a), and was
given a wholly new calyx, the three sepals being evi-
dently looked upon as petals; the bud was likewise given
an extra calyx and carved sometimes with three instead
of two sepals showing (Fig. 70, b). It was alternated
with buds and with pine-cones, and combined into elab-
i Prof. Goodyear quotes Oppert for proof that under Gudea (3000 b. c.?),
the Chaldeans imported stone from Egypt during the Fourth Dynasty;
points out 'that under the XVIIIth Dynasty Assyria was a province of
Egypt, and calls attention to the later Assyrian conquests in Egypt and
Syria and to the importance of Phenician commerce between Assyria and
both Egypt and Syria ("Grammar of the Lotus," page 177, note). It must
be remembered that the Phenicians not only carried Egyptian products to
Asia, but themselves counterfeited or imitated them, so that Egyptian
forms and motives were greatly multiplied and widely disseminated.
59


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
orate rosettes (Plate IV, 8). The lotus-palmette
(Fig. 69, b) was often substituted for the lotus (Plate
IV, 1) and used in borders; as an isolated terminal
ornament (Fig. 72, a);
as the chief detail of the
Sacred Tree (Fig. 70,
c; Plate IV, 2), and
in many other ways,
carved in alabaster-re-
lief, painted on plaster,
enameled on bricks, cast
or engraved in bronze.
In all borders, the units
were connected by vo-
luted bands, often curved
into semi-circles or semi-
ellipses (Figs. 69, a, 70)
and frequently fastened
together by links. This
is a purely Assyrian de-
Fio. 70. a, b. Fine and Lotus . j ,,
Bobdeb; c, Detail or Sa«ed vice, and the organic lmk-
Tree- ing of the units—no
longer merely strung along a straight line as in
most Egyptian examples—marks a decided decora-
tive advance. Whether the frequent use of branch-
ing and opposed double volutes (Fig. 71), so com-
mon in Assyrian decoration, was derived from the vo-
lutes of the Egyptian trilobe lotus and lotus-palmette,
or from the curled-over ends of the linked bands, is not
clear and perhaps not important. The discussion as to
whether the palmette in Assyrian art "is" a lotus or a


60


CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA
palm-tree also becomes unimportant if one simply ad-
mits that the decorative motive was derived from or
suggested by the Egyptian lotus-palmette, but was
treated in detail by the Assyrians in a manner plainly
suggesting a conventional palm-tree
(Fig. 72); an example of decora-
tive convergence which has scores of
parallels in the history of ornament
motives and symbols. In the sin-
gular "sacred tree" which so often
occurs in Assyrian reliefs (Fig. 70,
c), the intention is unquestionably
to represent or symbolize the palm;
in that sense the palmettes which
compose it "are" palm-tree forms,
while in decorative type and origin
they "are" lotus-palmettes. The
so-called pine-cones referred to
above may represent, as believed by
E. B. Tylor, the inflorescence of the
male date-palm, or it may be what it
appears to be, a pine-cone.
The rosette is used with such frequency as to deserve
to be called the Assyrian motive par excellence. It ap-
pears in every branch of Assyrian decoration, and in
every possible material. The pomegranate is more
exclusively Assyrian but less conspicuous by its fre-
quency. All-over patterns are rare; of architectural or
at least of genuine structural forms there are very few.
Columns appear only in the form of colonnettes; a few
bases and capitals have been found, and the reliefs from

Assyrian Vo-
lutes.
61


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
the palaces show how they were used, as mullions and as
supports for pavilions. In these, as also in furniture,
coupled volutes are favorite devices, and undoubtedly
furnish the first step in the de-
velopment of the Ionic capital
(Fig. 71).
Living Forms.
The human figure, grotesques
or monsters, part man and part
beast, and representations of
animals, all play a large part in
Assyrian decorative art; not
merely in the great pictures in
low relief which wainscoted the
lower parts of the interior walls,
but in more purely ornamental
Fio.72. a,TeHMixaLPaLM-and symbolic compositions,
ette; b, palm-tree, from sometimes carved in relief in ala-
baster, sometimes in flat color on
tiles or plaster. The huge symbolic "portal guardians"
—winged monsters with human heads and bodies of
bulls—that flanked the arched gateways of the palaces
and fortifications, are genuine decorative compositions
of extraordinary power and remarkable execution. The
details are highly conventionalized; five legs are shown,
two appearing in front elevation and four in the side
view; the hair and beard are curled into closely coiled
spirals and the muscles exaggerated (Plate IV, 7).
The winged lion and winged bull, as well as winged
human figures representing deities, appear frequently

62


CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA
in enameled earthenware tiles. The griffin (Fig. 73),
a monster with a lion's or panther's body and the head
and wings of an eagle, plays an important part in this
decorative system of religious symbolism. It probably
originated in Chaldea, and spread thence through West-
ern Asia, to appear in Greek and Roman art in later

Fig. 73. Griffin or Monster, from a Relief.
years. In naturalistic pictures the forms and action
of animals were rendered often with surprising realism;
but these belong in the field of pictorial relief sculpture
rather than of ornament.
Colors and Technic.
The Assyrian technic in the representation of nature
never fell into the absolute rigidity of hieratic conven-
tion observed in Egypt. Within its far narrower field*
it was excellent in execution, but less rich in variety of
motive and pattern of ornament. The gamut of color
was restricted: green, blue, yellow, black and dark red
were the colors chiefly employed. The use of black in
63


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
chevrons as a detail of the decoration is particularly
noticeable (Fig. 69, b, c, g, h). Not many examples
of painted ornament have been preserved; a few frag-
ments of plaster show patterns like those of the enameled
tiles. Bronze was used for jars and bowls, for furni-
ture and probably also for covering gates and some-
times other architectural features; but very few ex-
amples of this application of bronze to architecture have
been preserved. The gates of Balawat in the British
Museum, dating from the time of Shalmaneser II (9th
century B.C.) were decorated with strips or bands of
sheet bronze bearing repousse reliefs of the campaigns
of that king. The recent German excavations in Baby-
lon have uncovered the palace with its Gate of Ishtar,
whose towers were adorned with plates of bronze which
have disappeared. In these excavations it was also
found that the Babylonians, lacking stone and alabaster,
faced their gateways with enameled bricks bearing large
compositions in color, each brick being separately
molded and colored to produce its own small fraction of
the design. This style of decoration was later adopted
in Persia: it is probable that Babylonian artists were
imported to Susa to execute the Persian bricks and to
teach the art to the Persians, among whom decorative
ceramics have been an important art ever since.
Books Recommended.
Botta and Flandin: Monument de Ninive (Paris, 1849-50).
—Perrot and Chipiez: Histoire de Vart dans Vantiquite: Chal-
dee et Assyrie (Paris, 1883); also English translation by W.
Armstrong, History of Art in Chaldcea and Assyria (London,
1884).—Place: Ninive et VAssyrie (Paris, 1867-70).
64


CHAPTER V
WEST ASIATIC ORNAMENT
PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA
The northern half of Asia Minor, west of the river
Halys, was occupied, during the centuries from the
tenth to the sixth B.C., by the Phrygians, originally from

Fig. 74. a, Part of Facade of "Tomb of Midas"; 6, Detail from Tomb at
DOGHaNLOU.
Thrace; whose empire was overthrown early in the sixth
century by the Lydians of the extreme western littoral.
Along the Asiatic shore south of Lydia were the Cary-
ans and Lycians. In all of these several domains there
65


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

developed a material civilization which has left numer-
ous remains, chiefly of tombs, though excavations now
being made at Sardis and others that are still in the
future may supply us with products of other arts as well
as of architecture. The prin-
cipal examples of ornament thus
far to hand occur in the rock-cut
tomb-facades, some of which,
like the so-called Tomb of Midas
(Fig. 74, a) and a tomb at
Doghanlou (6) suggest textile
Fio. 75. Capital fbom design. This region has from
Neandbeia. ° _ °
great antiquity been noted for
the weaving of rugs; other ornaments are clearly de-
rived from wood-construction, while others again show
Assyrian, Persian and iEgean influences.
Several capitals and fragments of capitals (Fig.
75) found in Asia Minor, with branching volutes and
with recurved petals, furnish the probable prototypes of
the Greek Ionic capital and of certain details of the
Persian capitals.
Persian Ornament.
The art of Asia Minor bears no comparison in splen-
dor and variety with that of the great Medo-Persian
empire of the Achasmenid kings—Cyrus, Cambyses,
Darius, Xerxes and their successors. This empire,
which began its conquering career in 608 under the
Mede Cyaxares, and fifty years later attained greatness
under Cyrus (559-529) and his successors, developed
a grandiose architecture of palaces, halls, gates and
66


PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA
tombs in which Egyptian and Assyrian motives were
blended with others derived from wooden construction
and from the early art of the Ionian Greeks of Asia
Minor. This brilliant and showy art expired with the
fall of Persia before the Macedonian armies of Alex-
ander (330 B.C.); but the art instinct of Persia, though
under an eclipse for several centuries, was destined to
revive under the Sassanian rule, and in still later cen-
turies to affect profoundly the development of Moham-
medan decorative art.
Architectural Ornament.
The ruins of Persepolis, Pasargadae and Susa reveal
a remarkable develop-
ment of columnar archi-
tecture of stone with
wooden ceilings and
roofs. The walls were
of stone, or of brick with
stone dressings to the
doors and windows.
These have banded
architraves with pa-
pyrus-bundle moldings
and cavetto cornices,
evidently derived from
Egypt (Figs. 76, 77, a). ~ Fio. 76. Doorway, Persepolis.
Stone was used for
embankment walls and stairs, for the great palace
terraces, for the window-dressings just mentioned,
and for the columns; the walls were chiefly of sun-

67


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
dried brick, though at Susa enameled bricks were
used with extraordinary effect, to produce huge wall-
pictures in low rounded relief, and bands of elaborate
decoration, all in rich colors enameled or fused upon
the surface of the bricks (Plate IV, 14, 15). Decora-
tive relief-sculpture in stone was employed, based
primarily on Assyrian models, but treated in a taste
peculiar to the Persians, and always highly decorative.
The most striking feature of Persian architecture was
the columns with forked capitals representing the fore
parts of bulls set upon an elaborate composition of
double scrolls, upright and inverted bells, and carved
beads (Plate IV, 9,10). These are typical of Persian
eclecticism; one recognizes the Egyptian bell capital (see
Fig. 46); the Assyrian and Phenician double scrolls
(Fig. 71); the Asia Minor recurved leafage (note the
astagal or necking in Fig. 75); and the primitive
wooden forked post which has been used from im-
memorial antiquity, in Media and Phrygia, to support
the timber roofs of peasant huts.
The shafts were finely fluted, and rested on elaborate
molded bases, often bell-shaped (Fig. 77, d; Plate IV,
9) carved with elaborate leaf-patterns. The slender
proportions of the shafts, their small flutings and
molded bases, all point to a common origin with that of
the Greek Ionic column which came to its full develop-
ment a century later than the Persian column. Both
probably had their origin in Asia Minor, though the
remains of their prototypes thus far discovered are
scanty.
The same is true of the banded architrave and the
68


PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA
dentils of the Ionic order;
they are found both in Per-
sian (see Fig. 77, a) and
Lycian architecture, in
both of which they plainly
reveal their origin in tim-
ber construction.
Persian Ornament Motives.
These were chiefly de-
rived from Egypt and
Mesopotamia; the lotus,
lotus-palmette and rosette
are those most frequently
employed, but treated with
details which differentiate
them clearly from the
Egyptian, Assyrian or
Chaldean forms. In linear
bands of lotus-palmettes
and buds the units are con-
nected by nearly semicir-
cular loops instead of the
flattened links of the As-
syrian style (Plate IV,
14). Plate IV, 12, and
Fig. 77, b, show the lotus
palmette on a stem like that
of some palms which grow
by successive pairs of
leaves rising one out of the

Fio. 77. Pebsian Details.
a, Architrave and Cornice from a
Tomb; b, Rosettes and Palm; e,
Stair Parapet; d, Column-Base,
Persepolis.


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
other; evidently, therefore, not intended at all for a
lotus, but as a purely conventional plant-form, perhaps
even a palm-tree. Spiral and voluted forms are also
common, both in flat ornament (see Plate IV) and in
the mighty grouped vertical volutes of the capitals of
columns (Fig. 78). The Assyrian stepped parapet
also appears in the decoration of the platforms and stairs
of Persepolis (Fig. 77, c). From Egypt were de-
rived the fluted cavetto cornice (Fig. 77, a) and the
winged disk, converted into a winged ring encircling the
figure of a god, Ahuri-Mazda (Fig. 79). The sculp-
tural representations of warriors, winged lions and
winged bulls were based on Assyrian prototypes. The
wood-constructions of Media and Asia Minor gave the
suggestions for the
forked capital, the
banded architrave and
the dentil. The leaf
ornaments on the bases
(Fig. 77, d) and the
shorter leaf-ornaments
resembling eggs and
darts (Fig. 77, c) are
possibly remote deriva-
tives from the lotus
bud and from lotus
bands; more directly,
however, derived from
Assyria, as is also the
stepped-pyramid para-
pet. The bead-and-reel molding, which occurs in some

Fio. 78. Volutes op a Capital,
Persepolis.
70


PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA
capitals, is possibly derived from the papyrus-bundle
molding. The torus, which appears in the column bases,
the bead-and-reel, the shaft-fluting, the decorated col-
umn-base, the banded architrave, were all destined to be-
come important elements in the architectural decoration

Fig. 79. Ahttri-mazda from a Relief.
of the Greeks. Whether their origination is to be cred-
ited to the Persians, or, as is more likely, to the Ionian
and other races of Asia Minor, is not clear; but the Per-
sian was the earliest developed architecture in which they
were systematically employed.
Persian ornament is of interest partly on account of
its own splendor, partly on account of its relations on
the one hand to the Semitic art of Mesopotamia and on
the other to the Aryan art of Greece. It stands inter-
mediate between the two, alike in time, place and char-
acter. It is an eclectic style, borrowing freely from
every source, but profoundly modifying whatever it
adopted, and displaying a genuine creative originality,
as well as a remarkable power of ingenious adaptation,
71


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
in its use and development of what it borrowed to new
purposes and in new combinations.
Books Recommended.
Dieulafoy: L'Art antique de la Perse (Paris, 1883).—
Fellows: Account of Discoveries in Lycia (London, 1841).—
Flandin and Coste: Voyage en Perse (Paris, 1843-54).—Pek-
kot and Chipiez: Histoire de Vart dans Vantiquité: Perse;
Phrygie, Lydie, Carie et Lycie; Sardaigne et Judée (Paris,
1885-1890).—The same in English: History of Art in Persia;
History of Art m Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia; History of
Art in Sardinia and Judcea (London, 1886-1891).—Texier:
Description deV Arménie et la Perse (Paris, 1842-52).
72


CHAPTER VI
PRE-HELLENIC ORNAMENT
.3SGEAN AND ASIATIC
Intermediate between the art of Egypt and Meso-
potamia on the one hand, and the distinctively Occi-
dental art of Greece on the other, stands the group of
styles that developed in the islands and along the shores
of the iEgean and the Mediterranean Seas during a
period of thirteen to fifteen hundred years previous to
the first Olympiad (776 B.C.). The cradle of the civi-
lization represented by these styles was the island of
Crete—Crete "of the hundred cities," as it is called in the
Homeric poems. The Cretan civilization, as made
known to us by the discoveries of Evans and others at
Knossos, Phasstos and in other parts of the island,
beginning in a remote past in the third millennium B.C.,
had attained a high development by the end of the XXth
century B.C., and reached its culmination in the XVIth
and XVth centuries. This progress was interrupted
by repeated catastrophes which mark its division into
periods,1 and was finally overwhelmed, about 1400 B.C.,
by a foreign invasion, perhaps of Pelasgi or Achasans
from Greece.
i First, Middle and Late Minoan eras, each subdivided into periods. The
name Minoan is derived from that of the more or less legendary King Minos.
73


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
The influence of the Cretan culture—which though
contemporary with the Middle and New Empires in
Egypt seems to have borrowed but little from that coun-
try,—dominated that of prehistoric Greece and Asia
Minor. Out of this influence was developed the art of
Mycenae, Tiryns and Troy (Ilios, Ilion), commonly
called Mycenaean, which flourished from 1500 to 1300
B.c, and after two centuries of decline was in turn ex-
tinguished by the Dorian migration of 1104 b.c. Artis-
tic activity, however, continued in certain islands like
Melos and Rhodes, while Assyrian art was flourishing
in Asia (1100-600 B.C.), and while the Phenicians were
distributing and imitating the art-products of both
Egypt and Assyria and making them known through-
out the whole Mediterranean basin. On the island of
Cyprus all these various currents of art-influence con-
verged into a singularly mixed product, which partakes
by turns of the characteristics of each of its components,
and in its later phases also reflects the influence of early
Greek art.
Cretan Ornament.
The excavations at Knossos, Phaastos, Hagia Triada
and other Cretan sites have disclosed the remains of a
well-developed civilization with an art vigorous and full
of character, which strongly influenced that of the whole
iEgean and eastern Mediterranean. Of its architecture
nothing is left but foundations of extensive palaces and
fortifications, fragments of a few columns and archi-
traves, and bits of painted plastering on walls. The
columns (Fig. 80) tapered downward and bore sim-
74


iEGEAN AND ASIATIC
pie heavy torus capitals. A notable architectural mo-
tive, frequently recurring in Mycenaean art, is that shown
in Figure 81 (page 76) composed of a
pair of semi-rosettes flanking a vertical
rectangle. Its significance and origin are
uncertain. On plaster and on pottery the
circle, rosette and spiral wave or "Vitruvian
scroll" are frequent, in various combina-
tions (Figure 82); also a heart-shaped mo-
tive which was carried into Mycenaean
decoration. The elaborate "key" or fret-
pattern of Figure 83 is from a plastered
wall at Knossos. FiG. go.
Of Cretan pottery comparatively little Coi^'"(^0M
has survived, but the elaborate late Minoan
vase from Knossos shown in Fig. 84 reveals a highly
developed pattern of conventional leaf-forms. Fig. 85
from a sarcophagus found near Gortyna, shows a curi-
ously conventionalized portrayal of marine plant-life.
Figure 86 shows two all-over patterns from a large pot-
tery ossuary; one resembles a common Egyptian pat-
tern (see Figure 52); the other is peculiarly Cretan.
The interior of the same ossuary
is decorated with representations
of waves, fishes and shells.
Mycenaean Ornament.
The art-products of the My-
cenaean culture include those
from Tiryns, Troy, Argos,
Fio. a*. Late Minoan Vase. Nauplia, Menidi and other sites,


75





^GEAN AND ASIATIC
as well as from Mycena? proper, besides specimens
found in Rhodes, Cyprus and other islands, which
were obviously imported from Mycenaean centers. This
culture was especially proficient in the minor arts, in
pottery, goldsmith's work and bronze. It was less no-
table relatively in its architecture, although the great
tomb known as the Tholos of Atreus, and the Lion Gate,
both at Mycenae, attest the power to produce a certain
amount of architectural splendor. The ruins of Troy,
Tiryns and Mycenae show extensive stone structures
of a somewhat primitive character. Figure 87 shows
the upper part of one of the columns of the Tholos door-
way, with a capital and downward-tapering shaft evi-
dently derived from Cretan prototypes.
Of sculpture there is very little, no free statues having
come down to us; but the so-called "island stones" or
carved gems exhibit a high degree of artistic skill, and
there are fragmentary reliefs showing intelligent study
of nature.
Mycenaean ornament displays many motives from
Cretan art (e.g., that in Figure 89 from a frieze), and
is itself continued in many works of Cypriote, Rhodian
and Phenician art. Each has its own characteristic
forms, but connected more or less by common motives.
Pottery and metal work were the fields most success-
fully cultivated, and the ruins of Tiryns have also re-
vealed much clever decoration on plaster. Primarily
growing out of Cretan art, Mycenaean ornament displays
frequent traces of Egyptian influence, and in addition
exhibits a considerable amount of indigenous design,
both naturalistic and technomorphic. The example in
77


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
\^}Ji\^jJ y^7^\ figure 88 shows pat-
vSa^ terns derived from
vS^) l^S' y^^v. /^N. t>asketry, singularly like
ffis l /^^si^ ^"sJ<»/ many found on South
v^y p ^ ^ ^ American pottery; while
{^) ^a^^f^^ in Figure 90, a, b, c, and
H fumm/wl rePresenta'
|j *tvS>y/ l\ tions of marine plants
and animals reveal an
Fio. 91. Mycenjean Pottery, Spirals „ ,
instinct i or the observa-
tion and imitation of Nature, of which traces are found
in Cretan art, and which later, in Greek art, flowered
into the superb sculpture of the Periclean age.
Besides the architectural forms already referred to,
the motives characteristic of Mycenaean ornament are
the zig-zag (Figure 87), spiral (Fig. 91); the run-
ning scroll; a heart-shaped motive (Figure 94) perhaps
converging towards the cuttlefish (Figure 92); the
rosette, both carved and
painted (see Figure 89); the
double-branched volute recall-
ing the lotus trilobe (Figure
94, c); a peculiar variant of
the guilloche (or the current
scroll?) shown in Fig. 95, a
and in the detail of Figure 89;
and a number of unnamed mo-
tives, e.g., the imbricated pat-
tern from Tiryns in Figure 93.
A somewhat similar motive in a linear repetition on
vases, suggests an inverted egg-and-dart (Figure 95, b).

Fio. 95. a, Current Scroll,
Tiryns; b, Vase Ornament,
Mycenae.
78


AEGEAN AND ASIATIC
Figs. 96 and 97 show various Na-
ture-forms, apparently derived
from marine life; Fig. 97 is a vase
from Ialyssos bearing a squid as its
chief ornament. The cuttlefish
squid, dolphin (?), and sea-weed
are common, besides many forms
like those in Figure 90, d, Figs.
96 and 97, impossible to identify.
On the so-called "Mycenae buttons"
—thin plates of gold stamped or
repoussS in low relief, appears the
peculiarly Mycenaean motive of a
band winding in and out around Fl°- 96. Plant -Fobms,
H J J j. 1 MrCeNJE POTTeBY.
small eyes or round dots, with ex-
cellent decorative effect (Fig. 98).
The lotus and the multiple scroll, so common in Egyp-


Fio. 97. Satrna, on Mycenaean Vases.
tian decoration, appear frequently, as in a slab from a
tomb-ceiling in Orchomenos,2 in the band from a wall-
* Figured in P. & C, "Histoire de l'Art"; Sturgis, "History of Architec-
ture," vol. I, 125; Tarbell, "A History of Greek Art," page 55; Marquand,
"Greek Architecture," page 155.
79


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fio. 98. A My
cenjE Button.
painting in Tiryns (Figure 99), the ornament from a
Mycenaean sword shown in Figure 100, a, and the
Mycenaean stele b. The spiral also ap-
pears in other forms, as in Figure 101,
page 81, on the base a and in the bronze
work detail b (from a tripod in Athens;
its Mycenaean origin is problematic).
In Figure 103 we have rosettes from
Tiryns and Mycenae obviously de-
rived from Cretan prototypes like those in Figure 82.
Figure 102 shows a Mycenaean double-rosette frieze
ornament in alabaster very similar to the Tirynthian ex-
ample of Figure 88, both being nearly identical with the
Cretan example in Figure 81. Figures 104, 105 and
107 exhibit other Mycenaean nature-forms. In Figure
104, a is a common Mycenaean plant form (see also Fig.
96) which it is interesting to compare with the Egyp-
tian lotus-pahnette b.
Phenician Ornament.
During the decline of iEgean art, from 1500 B.C. on,
the Phenicians were developing
and extending their commerce and
industries. This presumably Sem-
itic people, occupying a narrow
strip of the Syrian coast, north of
Palestine, were the mercantile car-
riers of the ancient world, with
prosperous colonies along the
Mediterranean shores, of which Carthage became the
chief. They were traders and imitators rather than

Fio. 99. Painted Wall-
pattern, Tibyns.
80


FigXm

\hg.W.CyprioteJtvma
Sarcophagus
FioJIZQ/prioti Lotuses
81


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
originators in art; they carried and exchanged, and
freely counterfeited, Egyptian and Assyrian or
Babylonian wares and stuffs. The detail from a silver

1
TBE.
_ ■ tin . ifi mi.imm
Fio. 100. Mycenae Spiral All-overs; a, Gold Inlay on
Sword; b, Bbonze Stele.
platter in Figure 106 is plainly an imitation of Egyp-
tian work. Sidon was for a long period under Egyp-
tian rule. The Phenicians were
skilful weavers, dyers and bronze-
workers. Solomon's temple at
Jerusalem was largely of Pheni-
cian workmanship, and the ac-
counts in I Kings, vii, 13-45 and
I Chronicles iii, 15-iv, 17 prove
the Phenicians of 1000 B.C. to
have been capable of cast-
ing large objects of "brass"
(bronze), such as the columns
"Jachin" and "Boaz" and the
huge "laver" borne on twelve oxen.
Distinctive Phenician ornament motives are few.

Fig. 114. Cypriote Stone
Stele.
82


^GEAN AND ASIATIC
The most characteristic is a species of palmette springing
from the concave side of a voluted
crescent (Figures 108, 109, a, c),
derived from the Assyrian pal-
mette with horns, converging with
the Phenician crescent, symbol of
the goddess Astarte. It persists
into Greek art of the fifth century
B.C. appearing as a vase band-mo-

Fig. 115. Cypriote Lotus,
from Vase.
<SYe)
tive (Figure 109, 6).
Cypriote Ornament.
Cyprus was an important entrepot of Phenician com-
merce, and its art is peculiarly interesting because of the
mingling of Egyptian, iEgean, Phenician and early
Greek influences which it betrays. In general character
it resembles sometimes the Mycenaean, sometimes the
Phenician. Its principal motives are fa
the lotus, almost grotesquely trans-
formed from the Egyptian type
(Figure 112, also Fig. 115); the lotus
palmette in several variant forms,
one the Phenician palmette with up-
turned volutes (Figure 111), and
others such as those in Figure 113 and
Figure 114, used as finials or cap for
steles and pilasters. A curious de-
sign, compounded of palmettes, trilobes and horns is
that in Figure 111 from a sarcophagus in the Metropoli-
tan Museum in New York, from Amathus; in a variant
form which may be a lotus and not a palmette, it ap-
Fig. 116. Cypriote
Ornaments ok
Vases.
83


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 117. Phenician Vase from Jerusalem.
pears also in Fig-
ure 110, appar-
ently related to the
Assyrian Sacred
Tree (see Fig. 70,
c). It will be ob-
served that this
entire composition
recalls the primi-
tive Egyptian de-
sign of Fig. 34.
The type con-
stantly reappears in Asiatic art. Rectangles, lozenges,
and checkerings applied even to the central sepal of the
lotus betray the persistent influence of primitive basketry
patterns (Fig. 115, in which note also the swastikas).
The lotus is always ungraceful in Cypriote art. The
recurved or voluted
sepals in Figure 112
and Fig. 115 are
closely related to the
branching volutes in
Fig. 116, the lower
ornament in which—
a four-petaled flower
—is probably, like
the checkers, lozenge
and triangle of Fig.
115 and Figure 112,
a reminiscence of
primitive pottery and basketry (see Chapter II).


Fig. 118. Detail from Cstriote Vase
from Ormidia (Met. Museum, N. Y.).
84


AEGEAN AND ASIATIC

This survival appears also in the splendid Phenician
vase from Jerusalem (Fig. 117) and the Cypriote
vase from Ormidia (Fig. 118)—the latter in the New
York Metropolitan Museum. Animals, human figures
and plant forms appear on vases—the horse, goose
(Fig. 119, a) and bull, and caricatures of the human
form (Fig. 119, b).3 The swastika or fylfot
appears occasionally as a minor detail, probably as
a solar symbol, as in Fig. 115. The affronting
s Compare the queer plants beside the figure (is this Astarte?) with
those from Mycenae, in Fig. 96 and Figure 104.
85


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 120. Lotos-and-Bird Borders
ox Rhodian and Melian Vases.
of two opposed birds or beasts on either side of a
central shaft or column, as in Figure 110, preserves
or repeats a common
Asiatic (Assyrian, My-
cenaean, Hittite, Pheni-
cian) symbolic motive, of
which probably the earli-
est examples is the prehis-
toric Egyptian slate-carv-
ing shown in Fig. 34.
Whether the goose, horse,
swastika, etc., are solar
symbols, is a question not
yet certainly answered. Fig. 119, c, from a Cypriote
oenochoe in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrates the sin-
gular mixture of lotus and other forms frequently met
with in Cypriote art.
The ornament of Rhodes (Kameiros, Ialyssos, etc.)
and of Melos, is a later development from the My-
cenaean, less mixed with Egyptian and Assyrian forms
than the Cypriote. It is found chiefly in pottery re-
mains, covering the period from the ninth century B.C.
down to historic Greek art, thus supplying a connecting
link, though a slight one, between the Hellenic and pre-
Hellenic cultures. Examples are shown in Fig. 120
of a Rhodian lotus-band (above) and a Melian (be-
low), the latter an almost exact duplicate of that on
the Cypriote vase from Ormidia shown in Fig. 118.
Comparison of both with the Mycenaean jars of Figure
88 and Fig. 117 sufficiently demonstrates the inter-
relation of these three phases of pre-Hellenic art.
86


AEGEAN AND ASIATIC
Books Recommended.
A. P. Dt Cesnola: Salammia, Cyprus (London, 1884).—M.
Collignon: Archeologie grecque (Paris, 1887), also an Eng-
lish edition.—Furtwangler and Loschke: Mykenische Vasen
(Berlin, 1886).—Mitchell: History of Ancient Sculpture
(New York, 1883).—Perrot and Chipiez: Histoire de Vart
dans Vantiquite, la grece arcJia'ique (Paris, 1903).—H. Schlie-
mann : Mycenae and Ilios (New York, 1881).
87


CHAPTER VII
GREEK ORNAMENT, I
Introductory.
The Hellenic peoples were gifted with an especial
endowment of the artistic faculty. While their geo-
graphical situation brought them early into contact with
the older civilizations of Egypt, the Mediterranean
basin and Mesopotamia, their own esthetic aptitudes
enabled them to assimilate all that they borrowed, and
in transforming it, to endow it with a wholly new ele-
gance and refinement. Two characteristics are con-
spicuous in all their intellectual and artistic activity:—
their attitude of persistent inquiry in the presence of
every fact and phenomenon of their experience; and
their recognition and pursuit of ideals. The Greek
asked Why? Whence? How? where other peoples had
simply acquiesced unquestioningly in Nature's order or
the teachings of tradition, and he strove unceasingly
after unrealized perfections in every undertaking. The
progress of Greek civilization stands therefore in sharp-
est contrast with the slow advance and slow decline of
Egyptian art bound by ancient and sacred traditions,
and with the stagnation of Assyrian art. It was from
the earliest stages progressive, and in this respect
breathes the modern spirit and appeals to modern tastes.
88








GREEK ORNAMENT, I
Greek art in its keen observation of Nature, its vivacity,
charm and grace, its refinement of proportion, its deli-
cacy combined with vigor, and its artistic restraint, is
not only vastly superior to the arts that preceded it,
but at its best, and within certain clear limitations, un-
surpassed by any that have succeeded it.
The People.
The Greeks were not a nation, but a group of small
states, bound together by a common language and re-
ligion, and by certain common ethnic traditions. Greece
proper was the center and focus of their culture, but
Greek colonies established themselves in Southern Italy,
Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, the iEgean islands, while a
large part of Asia Minor was inhabited by Ionian
Greeks. In spite of this division into small states, often
rivals and even enemies in war, the Greek culture was
fundamentally one: all Greeks called themselves Hel-
lenes, and the rest of the world Barbarians, and all the
states took part in the quadrennial Olympic games.
The Dorians and Ionians were the leaders in the de-
velopment of Greek art, and their names have been
given to the two principal "orders"—originally distinct
styles—of Greek architecture.1 The other two chief
constituent races of the Hellenes were the Achasans and
iEolians.
Periods of Greek Art History.
Between pre-Homeric art, discussed in the last chap-
i For a concise summary of the historical beginnings and race movements
of the Greeks, consult W. M. West's "Ancient History," §§ 80-100 (Allyn
& Bacon, Boston).
91


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
ter, and that of historic Greece there is a noticeable
hiatus. Dorpfeld, it is true, derives the Doric style of
architecture directly from the palace architecture of
Mycenae and Tiryns, but there are grounds for ques-
tioning this derivation. In any case, the ornament of
that age seems to have died with the civilization to which
it belonged, and historic Greek art differs in quality and
spirit as well as in its forms from that of the iEgean
culture.
Dated Greek history begins with the first Olympiad,
776 B.C. It is customary for convenience to divide the
history of Greek art into six periods. The first or
Archaic may be considered as lasting from the first
Olympiad—or from 650 B.C. when the earliest Doric
temples known to us were begun—to 500 B.C. (Some
writers prefer to specify an early and a late Archaic
Period, divided at 550 B.C. and lasting until 480 B.C.,
the date of the Persian invasion.) The next or Tran-
sitional Period, beginning at 500 (or at 480) B.C., lasts
until the middle of the fifth century, and ushers in the
great age of Greek art, commonly called the Periclean,
which followed the final victories over the Persians in
466 B.C. This occupied the second half or the last two-
thirds of the fifth century B.C., and was followed by the
Decline of the first half of the fourth century. A bril-
liant revival manifested itself during the last half, which
constitutes the Alexandrian age. A further decline en-
sued, more rapid and complete, lasting until the Roman
conquest in 146 b.c.: this we may designate as the Post-
Alexandrian Period. But even in its decline Greek art
produced many noble and beautiful works; while after
92


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
the Roman conquest, Greek artists wrought for Roman
masters and infused a new artistic element into the
Roman taste and art; so that a complete sketch of Greek
ornament must take into account works produced as
late even as the time of the Antonines.
All these periods are but vaguely denned, for historic
Greek art was continuously progressive; the change of
style was gradual and constant. Hence they are to be
considered merely as arbitrary devices for facilitating
the grouping and classifying of the works of different
times and styles, and for marking certain well-defined
stages of development.
Some General Characteristics.
Whereas in Egyptian ornament color predominates
over form, it plays a subordinate part in Greek orna-
ment, in which plastic form, as expressed and revealed
by outline and light and shade, is the controlling element.
The Greeks seem to have been the first people to delight
in pure beauty of form and of line-movement apart from
symbolism and representation, and it was their constant
reaching out after an ideal perfection of form that gave
to their works their immortal freshness of beauty and
vitality of interest.
The Greeks cared little for mere patterning; there is
no characteristic Greek all-over ornament. But in
every work of Greek decoration the idea of structure is
present; not necessarily of the structural framework of
the object decorated, though this is generally recognized;
but an organic and logical relation between the object
and its decoration, and between the various parts of the
93



Fig.13& ElementaryRinceauon Vase Fig.156 Wmetesof LoLifomMotive
94


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
decoration. This quality also appears in the way in
which the ornament itself is designed and its elements
put together; they are never merely strung together;
they are organically united into a coherent design
(Figure 122). This structural quality is by no means
confined to architectural ornament, though it is there
most conspicuously in evidence; it appears in the paint-
ing of a vase or the composition of an anthemion band
as truly as in the ornament of the Erechtheion. Com-
pare, for example, the monotonous and inorganic string-
ing together of lotuses and buds in Egyptian bands, or
even the stiff linking of Assyrian forms, with the or-
ganic structural combination of alternating motives in
the Greek anthemion bands figured in Plate V and
Figure 123.
Another unfailing quality of Greek ornament is its
artistic restraint. The Greek artist knew when to hold
his hand, when to leave a surface plain, when not to
elaborate a motive or pattern.
These qualities of plastic beauty, grace and vivacity
of rhythmic movement, structural fitness and artistic
reserve, impart to Greek ornament a distinction which
sets it apart from all other decorative styles, unless it
be that of the early Gothic period in France.
The examples of Greek decorative art that have come
down to us consist chiefly of two classes: architectural
ornament, for the most part carved, though often en-
hanced by added color; and pottery, for the most part
painted. But so marked is the architectural feeling in
the vase decoration, that many motives were carried
from pottery into the architecture; while not a few of
95


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
the architectural details were executed in terra-cotta
and painted, much like the vases.
The Motives.
These constitute an alphabet of only moderate extent.
jararajHJHJl
Fio. 124. Geometric Elements.
The greatness of Greek orna-
ment lies in the variety and
originality of the combina-
tions of these few funda-
mental forms, and the ele-
gance of the results, rather
than in the number of the
primary motives. So nearly
endless are the variations of
these, that instances of exact reduplication of any orna-
ment on different objects are almost unknown. Even
such forms as the Doric capital, or the egg-and-dart
molding, are never exactly alike on two different build-
ings.
In framing any list of
motives, it is difficult to
draw the line between re-
lated forms and to deter-
mine when it is proper to
distinguish them as really
separate motives, and
when not. With regard
to certain nature-forms,
also, there may be differ-
ences of judgment as to whether they should be ac-
counted as ornament or as sculpture or painting. We

Fio. 125. Nature-Forms.


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
group the motives listed below into three groups—
geometric, natural and structural.
The geometric motives (omitting simple dots, circles
and parallel lines) are six: the fret or meander; the
wave or Vitruvian scroll; the spiral, both single and
branched; the S-curve or " line of beauty"; the rosette2
and the guilloche (Fig. 24).
The principal natural forms are: the lotus and lotus-
bud, the palmette or anthemion, the vine, and the
acanthus leaf, from the vegetable world (Fig. 125);
and from the animal kingdom human heads or masks,
heads of animals, paws, wings, griffins or chimeras and
sphinxes (Plate VI, 25, 26, 29, 35). Festoons of flow-
ers and fruit (called the "swag" in English books), ox-
skulls (bucrania) and fluttering ribbons also occur in
late Greek art, usually on altars, with symbolic signifi-
cance. Purely pictorial
representations of men,
horses and beasts, whether
painted or carved, are ex-
cluded from the list, as
belonging to pictorial art
rather than to pure orna-
ment.
The chief architectural
motives not included
above are seven (Fig.
126): moldings; flutings or channelings; dentils; the
egg-and-dart and its derivatives; the bead-and-reel;
2 The star which occurs in rare instances may be considered as a variant
of the rosette.
103
tnT

Fio. 126. Architectural Elements.
97


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
scales and imbrications (also used in painted ornament;
not shown in the figure), and the rinceau or branching
scroll (Figure 127).
The swastika or fylfot has been omitted from these
lists, although occurring on early vases, because it is
there used rather as a symbol than as a systematic orna-
ment, and was early dropped from Greek art. The
guttoe of the Doric order might perhaps be added, though
their use is very restricted, and they do not form a
motive capable of variation and combination into mani-
fold patterns.
Of all these motives three, the lotus (bud and blos-
som), the palmette, and the egg-and-dart, are clearly
traceable to Egyptian origins. Four others, the fret,
guilloche, rosette and wave, occur in Egyptian orna-
ment, but it cannot be proved that they came into Greek
art from Egypt, though this may quite possibly be the
fact. The spiral has been the common property of all
decorating races, and it was the Greeks who first dis-
covered the real beauty of its combination with the S-
curve and developed it into the most important single
contribution to the art of pattern-design made by any
people since the Egyptians first discovered and exploited
the value of contrasted alternation in their lotus-and-
bud bands. In the adaptation of the acanthus leaf to
carved ornament they further increased the debt of sub-
sequent ages to Greek art. The rinceau (Figure 127),
which is a combination of the S-line, the spiral, the vine-
motive and the acanthus leaf, was developed during the
Alexandrian age into an ornament which has contributed
98


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
a most important element to the splendor of Roman,
medieval and modern art.
Pottery Decoration.
A brief sketch of the historic development of Greek
pottery is essential for the intelligent discussion of its
decoration.
The potter's art was transmitted from the pre-
Homeric to the post-Homeric civilization without inter-
ruption, and practised in various centers of which
Rhodes, Melos, Athens, Corinth, Coere in Etruria
(though the majority of the vases found in Etruscan
tombs were of Greek and not local manufacture), and
in the post-Alexandrian period Apulia and Campania
in Southern Italy, were the most important. Burnt
clay, though fragile, is an almost imperishable material,
and tens of thousands of vases have been preserved to
our day, for the most part in ancient tombs, from as
far back as the seventh century b.c, and covering
the entire period from that time to the Christian Era.
All these vessels were made on the wheel3 and painted,
chiefly in black and red. Very few of these were
modeled in relief, notwithstanding the Greek predilec-
tion for sculpture. The Greek potters preferred the
simplicity of a pure and refined silhouette to the more
complex effects of relief-modeling (Figure 121, Fig.
128). The same reserve was shown in their long-time
preference of the simple black-and-red decoration, with
s Note that the dates given above exclude from consideration the archaic
Mycenaean and other pre-Homeric pottery, of which some of the earlier
examples are crude vessels molded free-hand and not turned on a wheel.
99


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
only occasional and sparing use of other colors, to the
more showy effects possible with a varied palette, such
as became fashionable to a limited degree in and after the
Alexandrian age. Thus their pottery decoration was
in sober colors, while in their architectural ornament
they employed brilliant reds, blues, green and gold.
This is in striking contrast to the modern taste which
prefers sobriety of coloring in its architecture and
brilliant tones for pottery and porcelains.
Changes of Style.
The earliest pottery was of a light red color, with
decorations in black and dark red or brown. In the
sixth century B.C. the color of the earthenware of the
vases was often a yellow-red, nearly orange, and the
decorations almost exclusively in black, while the forms
were more refined, profiled with more subtle curves
than formerly. In the early fifth century or second
archaic period, the ware was of a darker red, and the
black slip employed in the decoration—really a black
paint covered with a thin slip or glaze—became very
perfect and was used as a solid background, the decora-
tions being left of the natural dark red of the ware.
This change of technic led to a complete change in the
character of the ornament, as will later be shown. Dur-
ing the fourth century a further change occurred; the
ornament became complex and overcharged, varied
colors were added to the black and red to brighten the
effect; the vase-profiles lost their earlier refinement, and
modeling of figures and details in relief became more or
less common, especially in Apulian and other Italo-
100


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
Greek vases, which were often jof great size. The art
declined rapidly under Roman rule; as bronze, marble,

Fig. 128. Types of Greek Vases: a, Arybaixus; b, Lekythos; c, Rhyton;
d, Alabastron; e, g, Amphora; /, Krater; h, Ointment Box; i, Hydria;
k, Kyxix; I, Hydria. *
alabaster, glass, gold and silver came more and more
into use for the finer vessels, the plain clay earthenware
ceased to be a medium for artistic expression.
The grace and beauty of the Greek vases of the 6th-
101


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
4th centuries B.C. are due, first to the innate artistic
spirit of the people; and secondly to the use of terra
cotta vases as gifts and prizes. They were regarded as
works of art, and the painters who decorated them were
proud to sign their works. The decoration of these
vases was executed with a bold, free hand which the
published illustrations generally fail to reproduce.
Special care and attention were bestowed upon the
form, proportions and silhouette of these vases, in spite
of their humble material. A singular elegance of shape
characterizes nearly all of the Greek pottery; the profiles
are composed of exquisitely subtle curves harmoniously
blended. The chief among many types are the amphora,
a tall two-handled (or three-handled) jar for wine
(Fig. 128, e, g); the
oenochoe, a large-bodied
wine-vessel;thehydria
a wide-mouthed water-jar;
the lekythos (b), a small
slender-necked vase for per-
fumes or for votive and
funereal uses; the somewhat
similar alabastron, usually
of alabaster (d); the krater
(/); a cup or jar with a
spreading mouth; the kylix
(k), a broad, dish-like ves-
sel (these two types merge into one another); the rhyton
(c), a drinking horn, shaped often like an animal's head;
the aryballos (a), and various other forms.

Fio. 129. Geometric Vase, Seyms.
102


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
Development of Motives.
In an important group of early archaic vases the deco-
ration consists of successive bands alternately of orna-
ment and pictures (e.g., the Dodwell vase, a in Fig.
128). Another group, in the so-called "geometric"
style,4 are adorned with bands of parallel lines, zigzags,
curious frets, concentric circles, stars or flowers, swas-
tikas irregularly disposed, and checkered patterns
imitated from basketry or textiles (Fig. 129). In
others, mostly from the islands or from Asiatic Greek
factories, Oriental influences are evident; lions, sphinxes
and gazelles, horses and the solar goose are pictured
upon them, and in the ornament proper the lotus and
lotus-palmette are common (Fig. 130; this may pos-
sibly be a Rhodian vase).
As the potter's art advances, the fret, wave and an-
themion are increasingly used and developed into the
greatest possible va-
riety of forms. The
fret occurs in several
varying types; the sim-
ple fret as in Figure
131, a (page 94), the
compound fret, formed
by two intersecting

lines of alternate Fl0 130 Eaklt Vase; Rhodux?
"keys" and "humps"
crossing to form a series of swastika motives (ib., b);
the rosetted fret in which the key-motive alternates with
* Called also "Dipylon style," "Dipylon vases," because of the number of
vases in this style exhumed near the Dipylon gate in Athens.
103


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
a square or round rosette (Plate VI, 5, 9); the oblique
fret, and the double fret (Figure 131, c). All these
were drawn free-hand, usually in such manner as to
serted, a representation of water, and hence always
placed at the foot of the vase: it was used as a border
alike above and below the picture or vase-painting, as
a variant of the fret, from which it was probably de-
rived (Plate VI, 1, 3; Fig. 132 a).
The Anthemion.
The anthemion is the most important and most beauti-
ful of all Greek ornament motives. Its origin can be
clearly traced back through Phenician and Assyrian
forms to the Egyptian lotus and lotus-palmette.5 Its
resemblance to the blossoms of the honeysuckle, recog-
nized by the Greeks in its name wOifuov, is a fortui-
tous resemblance or an afterthought, more noticeable in
the late examples than the earlier, and is not an explana-
tion of its origin. In the Assyrian lotus-and-palmette
borders (see Plate IV), the units are connected by
linked voluted bands; the Greeks substituted for these
the double-curved or S-scroll (Figure 123), introducing
thereby a wholly new element of grace and rhythmic
movement into the composition (see Plates V and VI).
They also curved the "petals" of the palmette in vari-
o For an exhaustive discussion of this derivation, cf. Goodyear, "Grammar
of the Lotus" (London, 1891).

make the black stroke and
red background of. about
equal thickness.
Fio. 132a.
The spiral wave was not,
as has been frequently as-
104


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
ous ways, elaborated the connecting scrolls, and refined
their forms and combinations in an extraordinary variety
of ways, creating out of the somewhat monotonous and
lifeless Oriental pal-
mette an entirely new
and exquisitely beauti-
ful ornament (Figs.
133, 134). Fig. 134
represents diagram-
matically a few of the
principal types of
Greek anthemion bands—single and double, opposite
and alternate, vertical and oblique; the anthemion open
as in a, c, d or framed as in b, e, almost always alter-
nating with a contrasting motive derived from the lotus,

Fig. 133. Anthemion with Vomtted
Scrolls; from a Vase.

Fio. 134. Types of Anthemion Patterns.
105


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
which we may call the lotiform motive (Figure 136).
Figure 135 illustrates a number of typical treatments
in detail of the anthemion proper, which springs from a
triangular-shaped spot or nucleus (or rarely a simple
dot) set between opposed spirals or volutes. In Figure
136 are shown a few of the variants of the lotiform mo-
tive. Very admirable is always the skill with which the
ornament is distributed and the spaces occupied.
The change in the fifth century from the black-
on-red to the red-on-black technic led to a change in
the character of the anthemion patterns. To economize
the labor of painting-in the black background, the spaces
between the leaves or other elements of the design were
reduced, the ornament became more crowded and richer
in effect, and the hair-like lines of the black-on-red type
were omitted or replaced by broader lines of red (Figure
135, e). Some of the anthemion patterns of the late
fifth and of the fourth centuries are remarkably rich and
elaborate; they were made in the later vases to cover
large areas on the body of the vase, taking the place of
a picture on one side of the vase, especially in the
Apulian pottery (Plate V).
Next to the fret and anthemion, the vine is the most
important motive in pottery decoration (Figure 137;
also Plates V and VI). It occurs sometimes with a
straight stem, sometimes with a wavy stem, and may
represent in different examples the laurel, ivy or grape-
vine. The laurel crown of victory in athletic and
literary contests is symbolized by the laurel "vines" on
vases intended as prizes or honorary awards; while the
ivy and the grapevine were both sacred to Dionysos,
106


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
and naturally figured on vases for wine as well as on
those presented as gifts in token of good fellowship.
The type of vine in which a wavy stem throws out its
leaves alternately on either side to fill the hollows of the
waves (Figure 137), furnished one of the most impor-
tant elements in the development of the rinceau. The
substitution of branching scrolls (already common as a
subordinate detail of certain anthemion patterns in the
Periclean period, see Fig. 133) in place of the leaves
and berries, produced the elementary rinceau of Figure
138.
The Guilloche.
This is found in its simplest form in both Egyptian
and Assyrian ornament (see Fig. 69, /); but was de-
veloped by the Greeks into a richer band-pattern by
doubling and even trebling the rows of "eyes" and
braided interlacings. Only the simpler forms are, how-
ever, common on pottery (Figure 132).
Other Forms.
The "egg-and-dart" appears frequently on the lips
of vases, and both it and other U-shaped and scale-like
imbrications (Plate VI) are used on the bodies. These
related forms are probably derived from the lotus-and-
bud, as suggested in Fig. 139;6 but it is equally likely
that the scale-ornament was derived from the use of
feathers, scales in armor, or other like industrial im-
brications.
• This derivation was first pointed out in "Comptes-rendus de la Soci&e'
Centrale d'Architectes" for 1875, and later elaborated by Professor W. H.
Goodyear.
107


GREEK ORNAMENT, I
tant, and modeled heads and figures were often intro-
duced into the decoration. Fig. 140 illustrates one
of these Italo-Greek vases, and
in Plate VI and Figure 141
(page 94) are shown some of
the complicated details com-
mon in this pottery.
Architectural Ceramics.
Painted terra-cotta orna-
ments were long used on build-
ings of stone or wood, though
stone and marble displaced
them on the more important
buildings from a very early
date. Moldings, especially
crown-moldings on cornices,
antefixae, acroteria and ridge-
tiles were the chief of these ceramic ornaments. They
display many of the motives and patterns of pottery-
decoration, in modified form and richer coloring, in which
green and yellow were used as well as red and black:
frets, anthemions, the egg-and-dart, guilloche and scale-
motive are the commonest decorations. Similar orna-
ments were later painted on marble and formed an im-
portant element in Greek architectural ornament.
Books Recommended:
List follows next Chapter.

Fig. 140.
Apcliak Vase;
Sevres Museum.
109


CHAPTER VIII
GREEK ORNAMENT, II
Architectural Decoration.
In the application of the arts of decoration to architec-
ture, the Greeks attained an extraordinary degree of
perfection within a comparatively narrow field. The
artistic reserve was even more noticeable in their archi-
tecture than in their pottery. Accordingly we find a
sparing use of ornament upon their buildings, but its
scale and distribution were determined by the most
judicious taste, and its execution was as nearly perfect
as the artist's utmost skill would permit. In the Doric
buildings the ornament proper is chiefly painted and
confined to certain well-defined members—ceiling-
panels, moldings, capitals and the like (Plate VI, 32-
85). The most important decorative effects depended
not upon the ornament but upon sculpture—pediment
groups, metopes and friezes. The plastic ornament
of Doric buildings, as distinguished from the sculpture
and the painted details, consisted chiefly of the moldings,
triglyphs, mutules and guttae, the antefixae ranged along
the edge of the cornice, the lions' heads serving as spouts
at each end of the long horizontal lateral cornices,
acroteria at the angles of the pediments, and the flutings
and very simple capitals of the columns. Most of these
no


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
are shown in the lower part of Plate VI. Of the bronze
gates, grilles, lamps and other adjuncts of these build-
ings we have no remains.
The painted ornament of architecture comprised (a)
molding ornaments (Figure 142, page 113); (6) ceil-
ing-panels (Fig. 143); (c)
solid color applied to tri-
glyphs (blue), metopes
(red) (Plate VI, 33), and
sometimes to walls and pos-
sibly columns; (d) the
painting of the woodwork
of the interior ceilings; (e)
mural pictures on the in-
terior walls. Of d and e
no remains are extant- fig. us. painted panel, ceiling
We do not certainly know op Pu,0Ma> Parthenon.
the exact tones of the colors used in a, & and c, owing to
the faded condition of such vestiges of color as still ex-
ist. Modern restorers usually represent them as some-
what brilliant (Plate VI, 33-35): perhaps they were less
intense than these representations would indicate.
With the development of the Ionic style in the sixth
and fifth centuries, carved ornament assumed greater
importance and took on increased richness and variety,
which reached the highest point of splendor in the Alex-
andrian age, especially in Asia Minor, and gave birth
in the fourth century to a variant form, the Corinthian,
in which the capital of the column was the most impor-
tant and ornate feature (Plate VII, 14). The carved
egg-and-dart and "water-leaf" molding ornaments

in



113


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
and some of its details betray the influence of early pro-
totypes in wood. Its distinguishing features are the
slender columns adorned with twenty-four flutings
separated by narrow fillets and standing on molded
bases, bearing capitals formed by spiral volutes con-
nected by a horizontal band; the doubly or triply banded
architrave, unbroken frieze, and cornice without mu-
tules, often (especially in Asia Minor) adorned with
dentils and invariably crowned by a cymatium (Plate
VII, 9). As already remarked, carved ornament took
the place of painted ornament on the moldings and on
other parts, although color was still used as a subordi-
nate element to enhance the decorative effect. The
carved anthemion was used with fine effect both on flat
bands and on the high cymatia of the cornices (Plate
VII, 5,11). Carved rosettes, "cantilevers" or brackets
(Figure 145) and other enrichments also occur. The
style reached its highest magnificence in such splendid
Asiatic monuments of the fourth century as the Apollo
Temple at Didyme near Miletus, the Artemision
(temple of Diana) at Ephesus and the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus.
In the variant form known as the Corinthian, which
was in time, especially under the Romans, developed into
a distinct order, the column was made still more
slender, and the capital, more than a diameter in height,
was composed of one or two rows of acanthus leaves
under coupled volutes which supported the corners or
homs of a molded abacus (Figure 146, page 113; Plate
VII, 12,14). Employed at first only for small decora-
tive structures like the Choragic Monument of Lysicra-
114


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
tes, it was later applied to propylaeas (Eleusis), shrines
or treasuries (Epidaurus), and later even to the colossal
temple of Zeus at Athens (170 B.C.). Carved orna-
ment was in these buildings carried to the furthest limit
of elaboration known in Greek art, as in the three-
branched finial of the Lysicrates Monument (330 B.C.),
shown in Plate VII, 3; the capitals from Eleusis (240
B.C.), the rinceaux on column-bases at Didyme (Fig.
127, page 94), and later under Roman rule, the frieze
and cornice of the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi.
Painted Details.
In the decoration of moldings with color, the object
in view was to emphasize the profile by means of re-
peated motives of the general character of the egg-and-
dart or U-motive, modified in outline to suit the profile
(Figure 142). Flat surfaces, such as the corona of a
cornice or the edge of a Doric abacus, were often painted
with a fret, though the wave, the guilloche and the
anthemion-band were also often used, both on terra-
cotta and on marble (Plate VI, 28, 32). The an-
themion also figures in beautiful symmetrical patterns
in gold on a blue ground in the ceiling-panels or coffer-
ings of the pteroma or peristyle of the Parthenon and
other buildings (Fig. 143), recalling by their grace
and freedom of line the finest of the black-on-red vase
decorations. Acroteria, antefixae and stele-heads were
in the earlier examples painted, in the later ones carved;
the anthemion was the almost exclusive ornament used
on all these, sometimes combined with the acanthus-leaf
as a subordinate detail (Plate VII, 1, 13, 15).
115


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Carved Details.
In nearly all the carved ornament we may trace the
imitation and elaboration of painted ornament derived
primarily from pottery-decoration. Let us first con-
sider the moldings. Five chief motives occur in their
decoration by carving: the bead-and-reel for small
bead-moldings; the egg-and-dart on convex profiles;
the first and fourth are carved elaborations of the
painted molding ornaments described above as them-
selves derived from pottery-motives, or from pottery
directly; the bead-and-reel is an importation from Asia
Minor and may have been derived, via Asia Minor and
Persia, from the Egyptian papyrus-bundle molding.
All these carved ornaments were designed and executed
with extraordinary skill and care, and their beauty and
perfection have seldom been approached and never sur-
passed in later ages. Apart from the beauty of their
decoration, moreover, the Greek moldings are remark-
able for the refinement of their profiles, composed of
curves as subtle and delicate as the silhouettes of the

the "water-leaf"
on cyma-reversa
moldings; the guil-
loche on torus
moldings (Fig.
147); and the an-
themion on the
Fro. 147. Carved Triple Gutlloche on Torus
of Ionic Base.
high Ionic cyma-
tium or crown-
molding. All but
116


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
Greek vases. It was the Greeks, indeed, who first dis-
covered and developed the artistic possibilities of mold-
ings in architecture. The unvarying Egyptian com-
bination of the bundle-torus and cavetto or gorge was
effective but monotonous, and neither in Assyrian nor
in Persian architecture is there apparent any sense of
the beauty of effect inherent in moldings of varied pro-
file artistically combined.
The Ionic Capital.
The origin of this peculiar architectural feature, with
its twin spiral volutes and lateral "bolsters," set above
a carved echinus and supporting a molded abacus, has
been a subject of much controversy.1 As in so many
other cases, it was probably the result of convergence
of more than one line of development. The volutes can
be traced back to the branching voluted forms of As-
syrian (see ante, Fig. 7) and iEgean art, and finally
to the trefoil-lotus of Egypt. This seems to have
blended with reminiscences of primitive "bracket" caps
used on Asiatic wooden columns, and a wooden origin
is further suggested by the slender proportions of the
shaft and its setting on a well-marked base. The oblong
voluted bracket cap was apparently combined with what
seems to have been originally an independent form of
capital—a crown of one or two rows or rings of leaves
like "oves," clearly derived from nature and not from the
egg-and-dart motive, toward which, however, it con-
iCf. W. H. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," and his article in the
"Architectural Record," vol. Ill, No. 8, "The Lotiform origin of the Ionic
Capital." Also in Perrot and Chipiez, "Histoire de l'art dans FantiqueteV'
vol. VII, 618 seq.
117


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
verged to form the carved echinus of the Ionic capital.
One form of this foliated capital, shown in Fig. 148,
is probably a prototype of the high bell or basket of
detail. The high necking adorned with a carved an-
themion is peculiar to this one building (Plate VII, 7).
The Carved Anthemion.
This was, next to the capitals, the most characteristic
motive in Ionic decoration. Its origin in the anthemion
bands of painted vases has already been explained.
The technic of carving brought about a number of
modifications of detail, such as the ridging and furrow-
ing of the stems, leaves and scrolls, the elaboration of
the "lotiform" motive (Plate VII, 4), and the intro-
duction of the acanthus leaf (or in some cases apparently
the leaf of a thistle or aloe) to mask the junction of
fluted scrolls where they branch (Figure 149). The
most celebrated example of the carved anthemion is that
which adorned the north and west sides of the Erech-
theion, and which is much like that on the neckings of
the columns (Figure 121 a; Plate VII, 11).
The commonest application of the carved anthemion
band was to the high cymatium of the Ionic cornices.

the later-developed Corin-
thian capital.
Fig. 148. Cap from Aeg.e.
The fully developed cap-
itals of the Erechtheion are
among the most elegant
forms in classic architecture,
and were executed with
extraordinary perfection of
118


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
There are many fragments of such carved cymatia of
great beauty. One of these on the Acropolis at Athens
shows a bird perched upon its scrolls—an almost isolated
instance in Greek art of a purely naturalistic represen-
tation in the midst of a bit of formal ornament.
Another and quite a different use of the carved an-
themion is found in carved marble antifixa? and acro-
teria which replaced the earlier painted terra-cotta
and painted marble. Plate VII, 1, illustrates a marble
antefix (or possibly a ridge-cresting unit) from the
Parthenon, which may be compared with Fig. 150,
a painted acroterium or antefix of terra-cotta, and the
stele-heads in Plate VII.
Stele-heads.
Closely related to the acroteria and antefixae are the
stele-heads, i.e., the upper
ends or finials of memorial,
sepulchral or votive stones.
Apparently the earliest
sepulchral steles were
topped with a gable-
formed finish suggesting
the end of a sarcophagus,
and adorned with a painted
anthemion springing from
a nest of acanthus leaves.
This combination perhaps
recalled an ancient prac-

tice of planting an acan- FiO. 150. Painted Tebba-cotta
thus or similar plant A"im'
no


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
(aloe?) on the flat top of a square or round stele (Fig-
ure 151, page 113). With the increased vogue of carved
decoration the painted stele-heads disappeared and the
carved type was elaborated into a remarkably beautiful
design, especially in the fourth century, to which belong
the fine examples in Plate VII, 13, 15.
The Acanthus.
The acanthus is a common plant in Greece and Italy,
related to the common burdock (Fig. 152). The
variety known as the
acanthus spinosus of-
fers, by its formally
regular growth and its
crisp, crinkly and
prickly leaves, excel-
lent suggestions for
decorative convention-
alization (Figure 153,
Fio. 152. Acanthus Leaf (above); &). The date of its
Bukdoc* (below). first appearance m
Greek ornament is uncertain; it began to be quite fre-
quently used, however, by the latter part of the fifth
century b. c, as a covering leaf to mask the branching
scrolls of carved anthemions, as in the example from
the Erechtheion (Figure 149). These earlier examples
suggest the thistle and the aloe quite as much as the
acanthus; but this may be merely fortuitous resem-
blance. Another early example is shown in Fig. 154,
probably the earliest type of the Corinthian capital—
found in the ruins of the Apollo temple at Phigalaea

120


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
(Bassae) in Attica, but now lost. With the develop-
ment of carved ornament the leaf was more and more
highly elaborated, almost always in association with
volutes or spiral scrolls, chiefly applied to one or an-
other of four decorative uses: the anthemion-band, the
Corinthian capital, carved stele-heads, and the carved
rinceau. The last three were executed with especial
richness of detail in the Alexandrian age.
The Corinthian Capital
This, the richest of all capital-types, developed only
gradually into the final form which the Romans adopted

Fig. 154. Early Corinthian Capital Fio. 155. Capital from "Towbb op
from Ba8&£. the Winds," Athens.
and made their own. Contemporary with the over-
elaborate "Lysicrates" example in Plate VII, 14, we
find the much simpler form from the "Tower of the
Winds" shown in Fig. 155. A capital from the Tholos
of Epidauros shows an approach towards the later form
from the Temple of Zeus at Athens (Figure 146), which
dates from 170 B.C., and furnished the prototype for the
121


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Roman Corinthian. In this, sixteen volutes spring in
branching pairs from eight caulicoli or leaf-nests, to
meet in pairs under the centers and corners respectively
of the hollow-curved and molded abacus, each caulicolus
rising from between two upright acanthus leaves of the
upper or second of two rows of eight leaves each which
encircle the bell or core of the capital. The plain bell-
type of Fig. 155 suggests a possible imitation of Egyp-
tian palm-capitals; but its late date makes this explana-
tion of its form less probable than that of derivation by
simplification from the more elaborate contemporary
type of Epidaurus or the Lysicrates monument. Very
complicated variations were produced in Eleusis, while
at Didyme near Miletus, at Priene, and in some other
examples, piers or pilasters were capped with the curi-
ous form shown in Plate VII, 10.
The Greeks never developed any type of modillion
cornice for the Corinthian entablature, which remained
essentially Ionic in character.
The Rinceau.
The foliated scroll known by this French name does
not appear, at least in carving, until the Alexandrian
age. Its origin in painted ornament has already been
suggested (see ante, page 98); in carved ornament it
appears to be an extension of the branching scrolls which
accompanied the anthemion on some Ionic cymatia, on
the anthemion band of the Erechtheion (Plate VII, 11)
and on the more elaborate types of stele-heads (Fig.
150; Plate VII, 13, 15). In these examples the scrolls
branch only twice or thrice in diminishing repetitions.
122


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
On the gable of one of the splendid sarcophagi from
Sidon in the Museum at Constantinople, twin scrolls
branch symmetrically from the center to form not a
subordinate feature, but the entire decoration, of the
pediment (Plate VII, 1). The Choragic Monument
of Lysicrates was capped by a superb finial of triple
branching and interlaced scrolls, springing from three
scroll-arms which spanned the flattened dome of the
roof, and supporting presumably the prize tripod
awarded to the choir-leader Lysicrates (Plate VII, 3).
It was an easy and natural step from these to a con-
tinuous line or band of equal branching scrolls, with an
acanthus-leaf wrapping and partially masking the
several branchings. The base of one of the colossal
columns of the Didymseon near Miletus (the Temple
of the Didyma?an Apollo) bears a superb carved rin-
ceau, the earliest and almost the only example of a com-
plete continuous rinceau in Greek architecture (Figure
127, page 94). The Greek rinceau generally lacks the
reversed calyx or cup-flower at each branching that char-
acterizes the Roman type; the acanthus-leaf is simple,
thick and rather flat; the scrolls end in a sharp point in-
stead of a rosette or flower, and are formed by deeply
channeled bands and not by round stems like the Roman.
It was reserved for the Romans to develop and elaborate
this type, as will appear in a later chapter. But al-
though the rinceau as a continuous band-motive is rare
in Greek carved ornament, it appears frequently as a
limited motive after Alexander's time, and several
elaborate examples of its use are in the British Museum
from Eleusis.
123


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Other Carved Motives.
Carved scales representing tiles adorned the dome-
like roof of the Monument of Lysicrates, and the gabled
cover of the great "Alexander" sarcophagus (so-called)
from Sidon, now at Constantinople. The latter also
has a finely executed frieze of a grapevine with a con-
tinuous waving stem. The carved fret appears occasion-
ally, as on a marble funereal monument in the form of
a vase, in Athens. Lions' heads are carved to decorate
the spouts for discharging roof-water through the
cymatium, as on the Parthenon (Plate VII, 29, 35), the
Temple of Apollo at Delos and other examples. The
griffin was carved in the round as an acroterium orna-
ment, and in relief on either side of a central tree or
vertical motive—an Oriental device already referred to
(see ante, page 86). Beautifully executed examples
of these grotesques or monsters adorned many of the
capitals of the Temple of Apollo at Didyme. The fine
marble table-supports found in Pompeii were very
probably of Greek workmanship, but will be noticed
later under the head of Pompeiian ornament (see page
186).
Relation to Roman Ornament.
Greek ornament may be said to have finally passed
over into and been absorbed by Roman art. With the
conquest of the Greek states, Greek artists became the
servants of Roman wealth and power with all the Roman
love of magnificence, and contributed greatly to the
decorative beauty and refinement which are so often
124


GREEK ORNAMENT, II
present in Roman works. In Asia Minor the Greeks
retained in considerable measure their independence of
taste under Roman rule; the remarkable crocket orna-
ment from the frieze of the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi,
of the time of the Antonines, as well as many other de-
tails of this and other temples and tombs in Asia Minor,
exhibits the Greek originality of design. The capitals
of pilasters of the Arch of Hadrian at Athens («>.
120 a.d.) reveal something of the same originality,
crispness and independence of the Imperial formalism.
Southern Italy and Sicily abounded in works and prod-
ucts more Greek in style than Roman; and the entire
decorative system of Pompeii, in all its branches, dis-
plays a Grecian delicacy, fancifulness and charm,
which are due either to the employment of Greek artists,
or to the large element of Greek blood in the popula-
tion of all Magna Graecia. Doubtless the walls of
Pompeii represent the last corruscation of the Greek
mural painter's art, and they are the only examples
which have come down to us.
Books Recommended:
Anderson and Spiers: Architecture of Greece and Rome
(London, 1907).—Baumeister: Denkmaler des klassischen
Altertums (Berlin, 1881-89).—Botticher: Die Tektonik der
Hellenen (Berlin, 1874-81).—Chipiez: Histoire critique des
orders grecs (Paris, 1876).—Durm: Antike Baukunst (in
Handbuch der Architektur series, Darmstadt, 1885).—L. Fen-
ger: Dorische Polychromie (Berlin, 1886).—A. Flasch: Die
Polychromie der griechischen VasenbUder (Wiirzburg, 1875).
—Furtwangler and Reichhold: Griechische Vasenmalereien
(Munich, 1900).—J. I. Hittorff: Restitution du Temple
d'Empedocle a Selinonte, ou L'Architecture polychrome chez les
Grecs (Paris, 1851).—G. Kachel: Kunstgewerbliche VorbUder
125


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
aus dem Alterthum (Karlsruhe, 1881).—A. MAEauAND: Greek
Architecture (New York, 1909).—Lau: Die griechischen Vasen
(Leipzig, 1877).—M. Meurer: Die Ursprungsformen des grie-
chischen Akanthusornamentes, etc. (Berlin, 1896).—Stuart
and Revett: Antiquities of Athens (London, 1762); also
French and German editions of the same.—Tarbell: History
of Greek Art (New York, 1902).—L. Vui/liamy: Examples of
Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture . . . Greece, Asia Minor
and Italy (London, 1824).—W. R. Ware: Greek Ornament
(Boston, 1878).—J. C. Watt: Examples of Greek and Pom-
peiian Decorative Work (London, 1897).—J. R. Wheeleb
and H. N. Fowler: Handbook on Greek Archaeology (New
York, 1909).
126


CHAPTER IX
ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
The Roman Genius.
With Roman ornament we enter upon a new chapter
of the history of art. Roman art grew up under condi-
tions almost the opposite of those under which Greek
art developed. Instead of a group of rival and fre-
quently hostile states, allied only by race, religion and
language, we have in the case of the Romans a single
state comprising peoples of many races, languages and
religions, welded together into a powerful and highly
organized military empire. Lacking the prevailing
artistic and philosophical instincts of the Greeks, the
Romans possessed on the other hand a remarkable genius
for organization and administration, and a spirit at once
practical and progressive. With the growing wealth
and power which followed upon their long career of
conquest, the Romans developed, somewhat late in their
national life, a taste for luxury and splendor. The arts
which flourished under the direction of these tastes were
chiefly of foreign origin, though they took on in time a
distinctively Roman character. The Romans became a
nation of mighty builders and engineers, and architec-
tural decoration and all the decorative arts that are
concerned with personal comfort and luxury were car-
127


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 156. Etruscan Terra-cotta Cresting.
ried to a remarkable, and in some cases an extraordinary,
degree of elaboration and splendor. Sculpture, on the
other hand, was never a characteristic medium for the

Fig. 157. Etruscan Details.
128


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I

expression of the Roman genius. Roman ornament
lacked somewhat of the refine-
ment and restraint of the Greek,
but was more varied and more
flexible. It was eminently
adapted to the purposes which it
had to serve, and is well worthy
of study for its elegance and
versatility of design.
Etruscan Ornament.
Before the conquest of the fios. us and 159. Emus-
Greek states introduced Greek CaN TeRiA"C0TrA BoRDeRB-
art into Roman life, the Romans depended mainly upon
the Etruscans for such forms of art as their modest
requirements called for. This singular people, whose
race-origin and early history are still shrouded in ob-
scurity, possessed an architecture of their own betray-
ing a certain remote kinship with the Greek, but crude
and undeveloped artistically. Their frequent use of
the arch, and the character of their ornament, so far
as it appears in their works in bronze and gold, sug-
gest an Asiatic influence, chiefly Phenician, possibly via
Carthage. Their ceramic art, especially in its later
phases, was based on Greek models. The Campana
collection of terra-cotta reliefs in the Louvre, belonging
to the first century b.c, show much technical cleverness
in adapting Greek pictorial subjects, and even the
painted scroll ornaments on late Greek and Campanian
vases, to modeling in relief. The ornamental borders
129


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 160. Detail of a Pilaster.
of these reliefs retain a curiously Asiatic character (Fig.
159). In Figs. 156-160 a number of typical Etrus-
can forms are shown. Painted terra-cotta ornaments,
such as were used on the wooden superstructures of
their temples, are preserved in the museums of Italy;
they strongly resemble others found in Pompeii and
southern Italy, which are very likely of Etruscan work-
manship. These represent the highest development of
Etruscan architectural decoration, but plainly exhibit
their Greek derivation. The cap shown in Fig. 161
illustrates the crudity of native Etruscan details and
130


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
strongly suggests a
Phenician or Ori-
ental influence.
The Etruscans
were skilful bronze-
founders, and ap-
pear to have prac-
tised also at an
early period the art

Fig. 161. Etruscan Pilaster Cap.
of spheirelaton or sheet-metal
hammered into relief on a base of
carved wood. The fine bronze
chariot in the Metropolitan Mu-
seum at New York appears to be
a product of Etruscan work of
this sort of the seventh century
B.C.
Etruscan jewelry and filigree
were often of great beauty—
brooches, pendants, chains, etc.,
of gold sometimes set with gems.
Some of it is possibly, however,
of Greek manufacture (Fig.
162).
The pottery of Etruria was un-
important compared with that of
Greece. The most interesting of
its products were black vases

Fio. 162.
131


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
modeled in relief (bucchero nero), but these display lit-
tle pure ornament except flutings on the body. It ap-
pears to have no relations with the prehistoric black
pottery of the so-called Terramare and Villanova pe-
riods.
The Greek Conquests.
The conquest and absorption of the Greek colonies
in southern Italy and Sicily in the late third century B.C.,
and of the states of Greece proper, ending, with the fall
of Corinth (146 B.C.), in the establishment of the Greek
province of Achaia, not only made the Roman cam-
paigners familiar with the marble magnificence of the
Greek cities and the beauty of Greek art, but brought
to Rome itself countless treasures of that art and hosts
of Greek artists and artisans. Roman architecture un-
derwent a gradual transformation, which accompanied
and expressed the change in the Roman taste. Mum-
mius, the conqueror of Corinth, was in all matters of art a
boorish ignoramus; Sulla, who sixty years later captured
Athens in the course of his final campaign against
Mithridates, was a cultivated admirer of literature and
art. As a result of this process of education and growth
in refinement of taste, the Etruscan city of Rome, built
of brick, terra-cotta and timber, was transformed into
a Greco-Roman city of stone and marble. The Greek
orders, radically modified in detail, were adapted to new
uses, in combination with Etruscan forms of column
and Etruscan types of plan and the Etruscan arch and
Asiatic vault, and entirely new decorative forms and
effects devised in connection with new constructive ma-
132


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
terials and processes. Sculpture, mostly by Greek
artists, received new decorative applications; the arts of
the bronze-founder, the modeler in stucco and the mural
painter were developed rapidly to a high pitch of excel-
lence ; and the modest alphabet of Greek ornament-forms
was expanded into a remarkably rich and varied system
of decorative devices. In all these arts it is not always
possible to distinguish between true Greek handiwork
and that of the Roman imitators, who were probably in
many cases Etruscan by race.
The Decorative System.
The Romans created for architecture wholly new
requirements, applications and uses. To meet these
they devised equally new methods and processes of con-
struction, employing combinations of brick, rubble,
cement, concrete, stone and marble never known before.
The Roman genius for organization and system asserted
itself in the erection, by means of the vast armies of
unskilled labor at their disposal, of ingenious and stu-
pendous structures, massively built of coarse materials,
and producing novel effects of scale and grandeur made
possible for the first time by the use of the arch and
vault. This massive construction of coarse materials re-
quired a decorative skin or dress, both internally and ex-
ternally, of finer material, such as stucco, mosaic, marble
wainscot or veneer, or facings of cut stone, with mold-
ings, panels, friezes, cornices, carving, sculpture and the
like, besides such structural features and adjuncts as
columns, porticoes and porches, which must be wholly
made of the finer materials. This system was funda-
133


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
mentally different from that of Egyptian or Greek ar-
chitecture, in which stone or marble was the only ma-
terial, and temples the chief subjects of architectural
design. In these the decoration, other than painting
and free sculpture, was of necessity an integral part of
the construction, or at least incorporated in it or exe-
cuted directly upon it. With the Roman system, a
large part of the ornament was, equally of necessity, ap-

Fiq. 163. Tepidarium, Baths of Caracalla.
plied ornament, executed after the completion of the
massive structural frame or core of the building (Fig.
163). This is the system which has prevailed, and must
prevail, in all styles and in all regions in which the chief
building-materials are coarse or undecorative in them-
selves, or in which, even where stone and marble abound,
the exigencies of building require the use of the com-
moner and coarser materials for the main fabric of the
edifice. It is the system in general use in modern prac-
tice, and is entirely reasonable and artistically proper,
in spite of the objections raised against it by certain
184


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
critics who assail it as "false" and "illogical," because
the construction is not identical with the decoration but
is concealed by it. But solid masonry of cut stone or
of brick and terra-cotta, and in some cases wooden or
steel construction, afford the only opportunities for the
Greek or Gothic system in which construction and
decoration are, or may be made, inseparable; and even
with these the interior must in most cases be concealed
by plaster, wainscot, tiles, ceilings and the like. The
analogy of the skin of human beings and animals affords
a justification from Nature, of the Roman, Byzan-
tine and modern system, in its decorative concealment
of the internal organism and construction, revealing only
the general masses of the structure.
By the Roman system, the unskilled labor of hordes
of slaves, soldiers and peasants could be turned to
account in the heavier work of construction, and great
numbers of vast buildings be erected with comparative
rapidity, leaving the decorative work to be later executed
by artists and artisans, upon this structural core. The
Roman genius for organization and adaptation, guiding
and directing these artists, who were chiefly foreigners,
at least in the earlier periods, developed new forms of
decoration, in which conventional ornament took the
place of figure sculpture.
The principal types of decorative work thus developed
were: (1) the decorative use of architectural features,
such as columns, entablatures, pediments, moldings,
panels and ceiling-coffers; (2) carved ornament in ex-
traordinary variety; (3) figure-sculpture, such as groups
in pediments, free statues on columns or entablatures in
135


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
certain classes of structures, and reliefs in panels,
spandrels and other defined spaces; (4) the chromatic
effects of colored marbles and granites in columns,
wainscoting and
pavements; (5)
mosaic of glass or
marble in floors and
ceilings; (6) stucco-
relief in delicate
patterns, often com-
bined with (7)
mural painting in
brilliant colors, and
(8) bronze work on
ceilings, in grilles
and doors, and in
decorative adjuncts
like tripods and
candelabra.
Architectural
Features.
Fio. 164. Roman Arch (Abch of Titus). rpjjg remarkable
variety of the Roman buildings and structural devices
lent itself to a corresponding variety of decorative ef-
fects in which the purely decorative use of various
structural features played a prominent part. Pilas-
ters and engaged columns with their entablatures, pedi-
ments over doors, windows and niches, recessed arches
and deep ceiling-panels were the chief elements of
this pseudo-structural decoration. The combination

136


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
of the arch—adorned with its archivolt and keystone
—with engaged columns carrying entablatures (Fig.
164) was the most important of these decorative de-
vices, and has been in more or less constant use ever
since Roman times. In the later Imperial age, and
particularly in the provinces, as at Spalato in Dalmatia

Fig. 165. Niche-Cap, Baalbek.
and in Syria at Baalbek and Palmyra, there was, under
the Antonines and later emperors, a remarkable increase
in the variety of these decorative applications of archi-
tectural features. Curved and broken pediments,
colonnettes on brackets, spirally fluted columns, and
niches with shell hoods are among the features most
widely used. Some of these works have a singularly
modern look, as if of the Palladian Renaissance, which,
indeed, independently re-invented many of these devices
thirteen hundred years later1 (Fig. 165).
i This use of structural forms as mere decoration has been condemned
as "sham" and "false" design by certain purist critics, who contrast it un-
favorably with the "truthful" architecture of the Greek and Gothic builders,
137


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Conventional Ornament.
In developing the details of this system the Romans
were obliged to employ Greek artists and to begin with
Greek models for the most part. The Greek orders, the
Greek fret and anthemion, molding-ornaments, rosette,
acanthus-leaf and rinceau, were appropriated, but not
without radical modifications. With such stupendous

Fig. 166. Fragment from Temple of Vespasian, in Villa Aldobbandixi.
aggregations of buildings as the Romans raised in their
cities both in Italy and abroad—structures often many-
storied and of vast dimensions—figure-sculpture was
out of the question as the chief decoration, not so much
on account of its enormous cost as because it would have
been wasted and ineffective. Carved conventional
ornament, on the other hand, with its repeated units,
(Fig. 166) enriches such buildings without requiring
But even in Greek architecture there are analogous "shams," like the
pseudo-structural paneling of the Greek pteroma-ceilings, while the useless
false gables and the rich wall-traceries of Gothic art are perfect examples
of the purely ornamental use of forms primarily structural. The fact is
that in all advanced stages of art the structural forms of earlier stages have
been similarly turned to decorative account
138


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
that semi-isolation and that nearness to the eye which
are essential for the best effect of figure sculpture.
Plastic ornament was carried by the Romans to the
highest perfection of appropriate design, of rich effect,
and often of exquisite execution. Moldings were
combined and profiled with the greatest care, though
the profiles were generally less subtile than those of the
Greek moldings. In monumental buildings nearly all

Fig. 167. Roman Moldings.
a, Simple Water Leaf; b, Enriched Water Leaf; c, d, Acanthus
Leaf Enrichments.
the moldings were enriched by carving, the ornamenta-
tion being more elaborate than in the Greek prototypes
—sometimes, indeed, too minute for the best effect, but
almost always appropriate and beautiful (Fig. 167).
The general effect of all this decoration was one of
great dignity and splendor. The striving for magnifi-
cence sometimes led to offenses against good taste, and
the execution is occasionally coarse, but such offenses
are rare, and beauty, refinement, delicacy and charm
frequently characterize even the grandest works.
139


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
The Orders.
The most conspicuous adornment of Roman buildings
was effected by the use of columns and pilasters with
their entablatures, in one or more of the so-called "Five
Orders"—the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite (Plate VIII). In reality there are but

Fig. 168. Roman Ionic Capitals.
three, the Tuscan and Doric being mere variants of
one type and the Composite and Corinthian of another.
Upon their so-called Doric column, which was really
an enriched and refined form of the Etruscan (Tuscan)
column, the Romans placed an entablature derived from
that of the Greek Doric order, with its triglyphs and
mutules. The Ionic was but slightly varied from the
Greek Ionic type of Asia Minor. The capital occurs
in two forms: one following the Greek model, but with
a straight band between the volutes, on the front and
140


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
rear faces, instead of a depressed curved band (see
Plate VIII, 3); and the other with four double volutes
at the angles of the abacus, in order to make the four
faces of the capital alike; this is sometimes called
erroneously the "Scamozzi Ionic" (Fig. 168). The
Corinthian, an elaboration of the Greek Corinthian but

Fw. 169. Corinthian Capital, Temple of Mars
Ultor.
with a special type of cornice, is the really distinctive
Roman order. With the Greeks it had been a mere
variant of the Ionic; the Romans developed its capital
into a type generally recognized as one of the most beau-
tiful ever devised. In its most perfect examples, as in
that of the Pantheon, the Temple of Castor and Pollux
and the Temple of Faustina, it consists of two rows of
erect acanthus-leaves surrounding and concealing the
lower two-thirds of a bell-shaped core on which rests a
141


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
molded abacus with concave sides. The upper part is
concealed by sixteen spiral volutes which spring in
branching pairs from eight caulicoli or leaf-nests, set
between the eight leaves of the upper row. These
volutes meet in eight pairs under the four corners of the
abacus and under rosettes at the centers of its four sides
(Fig. 169, Figure 174; Plate VIII, 4, 6). The details
of this type are endlessly varied; in late examples ani-
mals and human figures sometimes take the place of the

Fig. 172. Modillion.
corner volutes. The Composite capital, having volutes
only at the angles, and larger than in the Corinthian,
may be considered an inferior variant of the Corinthian,
though sometimes very splendidly carved (Plate VIII,
2, 7; Figure 170). It somewhat resembles a four-faced
Ionic capital placed upon the lower part of a Corinthian
capital. Pilaster caps show a greater variety of design
than capitals of columns (Plate VIII, 8; Figure 171).
To these improvements upon the Greek order they
added that of a special type of base, an elaboration of
the Attic base, consisting of two tori separated by two
142


Fig. 170.—Composite Capital (Lateran Museum, Rome)

Fig. 173.—Restoration or Cornice, Basilica ^Emilia (from Drawing bt R. H.
Smtthe)






14,5


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
scotias and a single or double bead. In late examples
these moldings were all carved, reproducing at the base
something of the elaborate richness of the capital (Plate
VIII, 9, 10, 11).
But the Romans not only perfected the Greek Corin-
thian capital and base; they developed also a new type
of cornice which completed the Corinthian as a distinct
order (Figure 174, page 151). This was accomplished
by the simple but epoch-making device of introducing
modillion brackets beneath the corona and above the bed-
mold of the typical Ionic cornice. The modillion
(Fig. 172) was a completely new architectural in-
vention. The recently excavated fragments of the
Basilica iEmilia (86 B.C.) show a primitive form com-
posed of a mutule decorated on the under side with a
reversed scroll (Figure 178).2 The modillion of the
Maison Carree at Nimes (4 a.d.) somewhat resem-
bles this type; the more perfect type is shown in
Plate VIII, 4.
Variety in the Roman Orders.
It is frequently asserted that the Romans reduced
their Orders to a purely mechanical system of mathe-
matically formulated dimensions for each part. This
assertion springs from a blind acceptance of the rules
laid down by Vitruvius (or of the later formulae of
Vignola and other Italian Renaissance writers) as if
they represented the actual historic practice of the
Romans. In reality nothing could well be further from
the truth. There are no two examples of any of the
2 This appears to have been used over an Ionic order.
146


ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I
orders from different buildings that are alike, either in
general proportions or details. The Roman Doric is
at least as varied as the Greek Doric, and the variety
in Corinthian capitals and entablatures is simply aston-
ishing. There was, no doubt, throughout the Imperial
age a tendency towards uniformity in certain general
features and proportions, but this never hardened into
cast-iron formulae, and the beauty and vitality of Roman
ornament are largely due to the variety and individual-
ity of the designs of different buildings, and of different
times and places.
Decorative Uses of the Orders.
In Roman architecture columns were not only used
for their original function as true structural supports
in porticoes and colonnades, but also, with their entab-
latures, for decorative purposes, by engaging them in
the walls, which were thus architectually divided into
bays and stories. In arcaded structures the columns,
apparently engaged into the piers between the arches,
were in reality parts of the piers themselves, acting to
that extent as buttresses; but their chief function in
such buildings was esthetic, not structural. They were
expressive as well as decorative, emphasizing to the eye
the lines of vertical support and of concentrated thrust
of the building, while indicating externally the internal
structural divisions. At the same time they broke the
surface of the edifice into rectangular panels or units,
outlined by strong lights and shades, in which the arches
were effectively framed.
The Romans also invented the pilaster, a flattened
147


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
replica of the column, used as a wall-decoration, and
as a respond behind free-standing columns, as in tri-
umphal arches and forum walls. Over columns so
placed in front of pilasters the entablature was made to
project in a salient block, while between the columns
it was set back nearly to the wall-face, thus producing
the much criticized ressaut or "broken entablature."
When this projecting block and the column below it
together serve as a pedestal for a statue, as in the Arch
of Constantine (Figure 175), they serve at least a real
esthetic function. In other cases the order thus used
becomes a purely factitious decoration, unexplained to
the eye, as it supports nothing even in appearance.
The shafts of columns and of pilasters were sometimes
fluted, sometimes smooth. When monolithic shafts of
polished granite or marble were used, as was general in
the later Imperial age, the decorative splendor of the
colored material took the place of enrichment by fluting,
as a characteristic Roman practice.
The use of pedestals, by means of which an order of
smaller-scaled parts could be used for a given height of
story, was another distinctively Roman device to add to
the flexibility of the Orders (Figure 175).
Books Recommended:
See List at end of Chapter X.
148








CHAPTER X
BOMAN ORNAMENT, II
Carved Ornament.
In this field Roman art surpassed all previous styles
in the variety and splendor of its achievements, and
originated types which have persisted through all the
centuries since. The beauty of the Corinthian capital
and entablature has already been alluded to, as well
as the richness of the Roman carved moldings. Roman

Fig. 176. Typical Acanthus Leaves.
friezes, bands and panels were adorned with a like rich-
ness of conventional carving. Practically the whole of
this ornament was based on Greek prototypes—the an-
151


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
themion and rinceau supplying the motives for the
greater part of it. If we add to these the rosette,
festoon or garland,1 and the use of symbolic and
grotesque forms, and note that the acanthus-leaf in an
endless variety of modifications, was worked into every
possible detail, we have the key to the greater part of
this ornament. But with these few fundamental
motives the Roman artists developed a quantity and
variety of designs which for richness and appropriate-
ness of effect and extraordinary flexibility of application
have never been surpassed. Some of it is heavy and
over-wrought; but the beauty and refinement of the
great majority of examples entitle them to high praise.
The Acanthus.
This constitutes a type rather than a particular form
of leaf. As compared with the
Greek type, it is less massive, less
pointed, more minutely modeled;
it suggests a larger, thinner, more
flexible and more complex leaf,
with well-developed "eyes" at the
bases of the lobes and "pipes" or
ribs curving from these to the base
of the leaf (Fig. 176). The stand-
ing leaves in the figure may be
compared with the natural acan-
thus mollis in Figure 153, a (p.
113). There are many leaves in
nature which are divided in much

Fro. 177. Types op
Acanthus.
i Or "swag," as it is often called by English writers.
152


ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
the same way, and the Romans varied the carved type
almost ad infinitum, so that it recalls various leaves, and
modern writers have given them fanciful names accord-
ingly—the "olive," "palm," etc.—though in each case
we have a purely conventional variation of the type.
Fig. 177 shows a few of these variants.
The acanthus was used (a) as a standing leaf in
capitals and on some moldings; (b) as a molding orna-
ment (Fig. 167, c, d); (c) as a nest or bunch of leaves
from which to start a rinceau (Plate IX, 1,10,12; Fig-
ure 178, Fig. 179); (d) as a caulicolus or wrapping-
leaf to mask the branching of the scrolls (Plate IX, 10;
Figs. 166, 179); (e) as an ornament around the
stems of candelabra and the bellies of vases (Plate X,
13; Fig. 180); (f) as a conventional plant to alter-
nate with or replace the anthemion (Plate IX, 8), and
(g) to form the petals of a rosette (Fig. 181; Plate
IX, 9). All these applications may be studied in
Plates VIII, IX and X.
The Rinceau.
The origin and development of the rinceau have al-
ready been traced in Greek ornament (pages 000).
The Roman version of it became the most important of
all Roman motives, and has been perhaps the most pro-
lific of all historic ornament-forms except the lotus. A
round stem, springing from a nest of acanthus-leaves
(Figs. 166, 179, 182), branches into scrolls alternately
winding upon one and the other side, each terminating,
not in a point as in the Greek type, but in an elaborate
flower or bunch of leaves (Figure 181, page 143). Each
158


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
branching is concealed by an elaborate caulicolus or
wrapping-leaf, which springs from a calyx-like cup-
flower at its base. Such spaces as would otherwise be

Fio. 179. Rinceau, Fobum op Trajan.
left bare are often filled with subordinate scrolls and
tendrils, and in rare instances animal life is introduced
in the form of birds, mice and insects (Plate IX).

Fio. 182. Rinceau, from Temple of the Sun.
While some examples of the rinceau are heavy and
overcrowded, as in the example from the Temple of the
Sun (Fig. 182), others are remarkable for their deli-
154


ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
eately handled relief and exquisite details (Fig. 179).
There is the greatest possible variety of effect both in
the composition and detailed treatment.
The rinceau was used (a) for friezes and bands; (b)
for pilasters, either single, filling the whole width of the
pilaster-panel, or doubled symmetrically on either side
of a central axis (Figure 178); (c) on flat surfaces or
panels of almost any form symmetrically repeated on
either side of a vertical axis. Examples are shown in
Plate IX.
The Anthemion.
The preceding examples illustrate the applications
of the acanthus listed under c and d (page 153); Fig.
183 and Plate IX, 8, illustrate a group of forms based
on the anthemion. While some examples resemble
quite closely the Greek carved anthemion, others depart
widely from the type, constituting a new and original
ornament form.
Ceiling Decoration.
The wooden ceilings of the basilicas and private
houses have perished. Vaulted ceilings were decorated
in either two ways: by stucco ornament, modeled in re-
lief and painted, or by paneling in deep "coffers" or
"caissons." These were derived originally through
Greek architecture from wooden ceilings framed with
intersecting beams. In the Pantheon they appear to
have been hewn out of the solid brick masonry of the
dome, long after its original completion, its 28 rows of
panels fitting but indifferently over the eight-fold
155


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
divisions of the architec-
ture below. An early
and elegant example of
vault-paneling is seen in
the soffit of the Arch of
Titus (80 A.D.). The
panels were in most cases
simple geometric forms—
squares, octagons, "loz-
enges," etc.; the sides of
each caisson were molded
and the fields of the pan-
els adorned with splen-
didly carved rosettes or
with mosaic patterns, or
else left plain (Fig. 184).
Ceiling decoration in
stucco is treated in a later
paragraph (page 161;
see Figures 187 and 201).
Figure Sculpture.
Figure sculpture played
a far less important part
in the decoration of Roman buildings than in the Greek
monuments. The reasons for this have been already
touched upon (page 138). Nevertheless the splendid
decorative value of the figure was not ignored, but was
availed of in many decorative reliefs of high artistic
excellence. The Romans were especially successful in
the sculpture of symbolic grotesques and of infant fig-

Fio.
183. Roman Carved Anthemi-
ons.
156


ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
ures (genii and amorini). By a grotesque is meant an
artistic combination of heterogeneous Nature-forms, as
in Fig. 195, where an infant figure is provided with
wings, and terminates in a superb acanthus scroll in
place of legs. The festoon or "swag" and garland,
bound with fluttering ribbons representing sacrificial


I


Fro. 184.
fillets (Figure 186; Plate VIII, 3, 6); the bucrane or
ox-skull, likewise a sacrificial symbol (Plate IX, 7); the
dolphin and steering-paddle symbolizing Neptune and
water (Figure 185); the Imperial eagle, and trophies
of arms and armor, are common in Roman decorative
art.
The most beautiful of Roman relief decorations are
perhaps the charming reliefs modeled in plaster on the
ceilings and walls of houses and thermae, as noted in a
later paragraph.
157


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Wall Decoration.
Three methods were employed: marble veneer, paint-
ing and stucco-relief. Both in the richer private houses
and palaces, and in the thermae, basilicas and temples,
the lower part at least of the interior walls was wains-
coted with slabs of variegated marble, so set as to pro-
duce symmetrical patterns of veining. This practice
was probably introduced from Asia Minor, where
marble abounds, although it has been contended 2 with
a good deal of force, that it came from Alexandria
together with the sort of mosaic called Opus Alexan-
drinum. The origin is less important than the result.
A special emporium was established on the Tiber for
the traffic in marble, of which enormous quantities were
required for columns, wainscots and pavements. The
ancient wall-incrustations have mostly disappeared, torn
away to supply materials for medieval and even Renais-
sance buildings. One important example, however,
remains; the interior wall of the Pantheon, up to the
main cornice, still retains for the most part its original
lining, in perfect condition. This style of decoration
has survived in the Early Christian basilicas and Byzan-
tine churches (see Chapters XII and XIII).
Stucco Relief.
It was the Romans who first, with the aid, most prob-
ably, of Greek artificers, developed the artistic possibili-
ties of work in stucco for interior decorations, especially
of vaulted ceilings. This art had evidently reached
2 See "Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects," vol. Ill,
New Series; 1887.
156



Fig. 188.—Stucco Relief, from a Roman House (in Museo delle Terme)





ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
a high state of perfection by the middle of the first
century a.d. The substructions of the Golden House
of Nero (who died a.d. 68), and of the Baths of Titus,
built in 74 on the same site, together with numerous
examples in Pompeii, which was overwhelmed by the
eruption of 79 a.d., afford abundant proof of the bril-
liance, delicacy and originality of the Roman stucco-
work of this time. The Roman stucco, made in part
with pounded marble and thoroughly slaked lime, was
extraordinarily fine and durable. It was applied only
as fast as it could be worked into decorative form, and
molded partly by mechanical means, partly freehand,
while still wet. The area to be decorated was laid off
in panels of various geometric forms, outlined by mold-
ings of delicate profile, often enriched with eggs-and-
darts, leaves or other ornaments. The panels were
then adorned with paintings, with glass-mosaic (as in
the Baths of Caracalla), or more frequently, with relief
arabesques or figures modeled in the stucco; and it is
in these last that the highest skill was manifested. The
exquisite charm of this work, its delicacy of low relief,
the freedom and dash of its execution indicate artistic
ability and taste of a very high order (Figures 187,188).
Important examples of various handlings of this
material are: at Rome, Tombs on the Via Latina, the
substructions of the Baths of Titus and of Nero's
Golden House, ruins on the Palatine and fragments in
the Musec delle Terme from a house uncovered in 1879
near the Villa Famesina, in excavations for the new
Tiber embankments; at Pompeii, the Baths of the
Forum (the tepidarium), Stabian Baths and a few
161


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
examples in private houses. The great majority of
these date from the first century a.d., after which a
more robust and monumental decoration of walls and
ceilings appears to have gradually displaced this charm-
ing but minute and intimate form of art.
The ornaments of stucco in low relief were often com-
bined with painting, on walls as well as ceilings. The
labyrinth of piers and vaults under the ruins of the
Baths of Titus on the Esquiline (part of them belong-
ing to the Golden House of Nero) are doubly interest-
ing because they furnished the models from which
Raphael drew his inspiration for his remarkable painted
stucco-relief decorations in the Loggie of the Vatican,
and less directly, Giulio Romano and Giovanni da
Udine for those in the Villa Madama.
Painting.
The above examples, especially those from the house
uncovered in 1879, and others in the Villa of Hadrian
at Tivoli, and in the so-called Casa di Livia on the
Palatine, prove the substantial identity of style of the
mural paintings in the Capital with those at Pompeii,
with only such differences of quality as one might expect
between the Capital and a provincial town, somewhat
hastily rebuilt after the earthquake of 63. This phase
of Roman ornament will be treated in the next chapter,
devoted to Pompeii, on account of the great number
and importance of the Pompeiian examples.
Pavements.
The floors of all important buildings were of marble
162


ROMAN ORNAMENT, II

Fig. 190.
Detail, Floor, Mosaic, in Villa
Italica, Seville.
or mosaic. Marble
was used in large
panels of various
colors in circles,
squares and simple
geometric forms; but
as with the wains-
coting, most of these
pavements have dis-
appeared to provide
materials for the
floors of Christian
basilicas. That of
the Pantheon may be in part original, and fragments of
the floor of the Basilica Julia have also been preserved.
Mosaic floors were paved with minute tesserae or
roughly squared fragments of
colored marble, tile or other ma-
terial, set in patterns usually of
a plain field with a decorative bor-
der in the larger rooms, though in
smaller rooms all-over patterns
were not uncommon (Plate XI,
9, 11, 12). Outside of Rome, in
Asia Minor and in other remote
provinces as well as in Pompeii,
elaborately pictured floors were
executed in tesserae of variously
colored marbles. The most fa-
mous example from the House of
the Faun in Pompeii is now pre-


Fio. 193. Ornaments,
Bronze and Gold.
168


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
served in the Naples Museum (see page 182). Figure
189 illustrates a floor pattern of "swastikas" from a
house in Pompeii. There are some fine examples in the
Museum of Constantinople. Fig. 190 shows a detail
of the mosaic floor of a Roman villa near Seville, Spain.
Furniture and Utensils.
Whatever furniture was of wood has perished; but
the more important and permanent objects in the equip-

Fio. 194. Under Side of Silver Vase, Hildesheim Treasure.
ment of houses were of marble and bronze, and of these,
together with the smaller utensils and furnishings in
bronze, we have many examples in the various museums.
As, however, the great majority of these are from
Pompeii, they will be briefly discussed and illustrated in
the following chapter on Pompeiian art. Plate X and
Figures 191, 192 and Figs. 193, 194 show illustrations
164



Fia. 192.—Roman Vase (from Cast in Metropolitan Museum, New York)





ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
of pedestals, candelabra and vases, mostly in the muse-
ums of the Vatican and of the Capitol at Rome and in
the Museo Nazionale at Naples. Large vases of marble,
elaborately sculptured, were used in the decoration of
villas, presumably in the gardens, serving most probably
as vases for the planting of flowers, vines and small trees
or shrubs. In these, Roman decorative art reached a
high degree of excellence and supplied models which
the Renaissance artists of Italy and later of France
imitated with success but hardly surpassed. The
Museum of the Louvre possesses a colossal marble vase
with spiral flutings and figures in relief, and other ex-
amples are found in the Capitoline and Vatican museums
at Rome and the Nazionale at Naples (Figures 191,
192). Convex and concave flutings, acanthus-leaves
and guilloches, the vine and grotesques are the most com-
mon adornments of these fine vases, the grace of whose
outlines is fully equal to the splendor of their decoration.
Goldsmith's Work and Jewelry.
Skill in jewelry was shown by the Etruscans, who
may have furnished the greater part of the jewelers
even in Imperial times. The character of the later
jewelry—bracelets, brooches, pendants and pins—does
not differ essentially from that of the earlier Etruscan
work except in greater variety of form. The bronze
and silver mirrors deserve notice for the beauty of the
handles and backs. The famous Hildesheim Treasure,
discovered in 1868 at Hildesheim, Germany, com-
prising gold and silver bowls, platters and other vessels
magnificently decorated with figures, vines and orna-
167


A HISTORY DF ORNAMENT
ments in relief, reveals the same excellent taste and fine
workmanship observable in Roman works in bronze and
marble (Plate X and Figure 193).

Fig. 195.
Books Recommended:
As before, Anderson and Spiers, Baumeister, Jacobsthal,
Kachel, Vulliamy. Also, F. Albertolli: Fregt trovati negli
Scavi del Foro Trajano (Milan, 1824); Ornamenti diversi An-
tonini (Milan, 1843); Manuale di varii ornamenti . . . e fra-
menti antichi (Rome, 1781-1790).—J. Bxtehlmann: The
Architecture of Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance (New
York, 1900).—G. P. Campana: Antiche Opere in Plastica
(Rome, 1851).—J. Durm: Baukunst der Etrusker; Baukunst
der Romer (Darmstadt, 1885).—G. Ebe: Die Schmuckformen
168


ROMAN ORNAMENT, II
der Monumentalbauten (Leipzig, 1896).—H. d'Espouy: Frag-
ments de Varchitecture antique (Paris,'1896-1905).—P. Gus-
man: L'Art decoratif de Rome (Paris, 1908).— S. Hessel-
bach: Vergleichende Darstellung der antiken Ornamentik, etc.
(Wiirzburg, 1849).—J. de Marta: L'Art Etrusque; Archeol-
ogie etrusque et romaine (Paris, n. d.).—Strack: Baudenk-
maler Roms. (Berlin, 1891).—C. H. Tatham: Etchings
(London, 1810).—Taylob and Cresy, Antiquities of Rome
(London, 1824).—Thierry: Klassische Ornamente.—C. Uhde:
Architecturformen des Klassischen Altertums (Berlin, n. d.);
also an edition in English (New York, 1909).
Consult also various volumes of the engravings of Pibanesi
(to be found only in the larger libraries); the volumes of
L'Art pour Tons (Paris, 1863—) ; and the printed transactions
of various archaeological societies, for valuable material.
169


CHAPTER XI
POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
The decorative art of Pompeii was a provincial phase
of Roman art differing from that of the capital in cer-
tain aspects, precisely as in Dalmatia, in Syria and in
North Africa, local conditions modified the detailed
forms of decorative expression while the Roman impress
was nevertheless over all. It is pervaded by a spirit
of Grecian delicacy and refinement, due to the strong
Greek element in the population of Southern Italy; but
there are details on the other hand which smack of the
Etruscan. The importance of Pompeiian art is due to
its wonderfully complete preservation by burial under
the scorice after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a.d.
Its progressive excavation since 1748 has laid bare the
aspect, life and art of a provincial South Italian city of
the first century, while all other Roman cities (except
Herculanum, still buried) have suffered complete trans-
formation by successive rebuildings through eighteen
centuries.
Two facts must be kept in mind in all study of Pom-
peiian art: first, that the majority of houses and many
of the temples and public buildings were, at the time
of the eruption, newly built to replace those destroyed
by the earthquake of 63 a.d.; and that in consequence
170


POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
of the earthquake they were mostly low buildings, un-
like the more lofty and monumental architecture of
most other cities; secondly, that they represent the
relatively early Roman art of the first century, previous
to the time of Domitian, and not of the later and more
splendid Imperial age. Yet in the matter of decoration
there is less difference of style than one would expect
from the work of the same age in the Capital (e.g., the

Fig. 196. Ionic Cap, Corner Volutes.
House of Livia and the frescoes in the Museo delle
Terme) or even of a later period as seen in the Villa
of Hadrian.
The ornament of Pompeii will be discussed under
four heads: (1) Architectural detail; (2) Mural decora-
tion; (3) Mosaic; (4) Furniture and utensils. It will
be seen that in all these divisions, while the motives are
essentially Roman, there is a freedom, a lightness of
touch and delicacy of treatment, which suggest Greek
workmanship, and which are probably due to the per-
sistent strain of Hellenic blood in the population of all
Southern Italy.
171


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Architectural Detail.
The Orders were handled with great freedom, whether
executed in cut-stone, or, as more frequently, in rubble
or brick finished in stucco. The Doric order was often
of the Greek rather than of the Roman type; the Ionic
capital usually had doubled corner-volutes and a very
slight projection or width as compared with both Greek
and Roman types (Fig. 196), and the Corinthian

capital was considerably varied, both in the number and
character of its leaves. The Roman type of acanthus
is not found, a more bluntly crinkled leaf being pre-
ferred. The Doric columns had no bases, those of the
other orders often lacked plinths; the moldings differed
from the Roman, in having profiles more varied and
delicate, with an almost feminine refinement (Fig.
197). The entablatures have for the most part
perished. The few fragments that remain intact show
the same characteristics in varying from the fashions
of Rome and in refinement of detail. A common
Pompeiian feature was the filling-up of the lower part
172


POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
of the flutings of stuccoed columns, to prevent the
chipping and marring of the fragile arrises; sometimes a
convex "flute" or bead inserted in this portion protected
without quite filling the fluting, and this has become a
common decorative device of modern architecture.
All this Pompeiian architecture of rubble and stucco
was embellished with color, of which traces still remain.
Even capitals were painted and the carved and molded
details were adorned in like manner. One house is
known as the Casa dei capitelli colorati, the House of
Painted Capitals, because of the perfect preservation
of the color on its stucco or cement capitals; but it was
originally but one of hundreds so adorned. Figure 198
illustrates the elegance of detail in a carved rinceau in
stone.
Mural Decoration.
In this field the Pompeiian remains are unrivaled.
The chief means of decoration was by painting on
stucco; the use of rich marbles, whether for construction
Fig. 198. Carved Pompeiian Rinceau.

173


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
or wall-incrustation, although increasingly common in
Rome for at least a half century before the destruction
of Pompeii, was not common in the provincial town.
The surprising thing is that within less than sixteen
years after the destructive earthquake of a.d. 63, this
town should have been rebuilt with such elaboration of
elegance in its painted decorations as the remains have
exhibited. Many of the paintings have been trans-
ferred to the Royal Museum at Naples, but the wealth
of decoration still remaining in place is astonishing, in
quality as well as quantity. Some of the more recently
excavated houses—that of Queen Margherita, of the
Vettii, and others, equal or surpass the splendors of the
Museum (Figures 199, 200).
Four well-marked periods or styles (for doubtless
they overlap independently of period-limits) are recog-
nized. The first, supposed to be Etruscan or Cumaean,
and dating as far back as 100 B.C., is that of walls simply
divided into panels of different colors with occasional
painted imitations of marble wainscot. The second,
called the Greek, supposed to have been introduced
about 80 B.C., is distinguished by the earliest use of
pictures copied from Greek originals, or reminiscences
of them, the subjects being mostly taken from Greek
mythology. A very simple type of painted archi-
tectural embellishment accompanies many of these pic-
tured decorations: painted columns, bases and entab-
latures serving to mark off the wall-divisions. The
third and fourth styles are Roman or Pompeiian; both
are found in the houses rebuilt after the earthquake,
and both are characterized by a light and fantastic archi-
174








POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
tecture painted in a conventional perspective, with
slender columns as of gold, with extraordinary entab-
latures, pediments and balconies, giving vistas of the
clear sky above, and enclosing pictures of varied sub-
jects, sometimes of large size, or simpler colored panels
in the centers of which float airy figures of nymphs,
cupids and other mythological beings, In the Fourth
or Florid style this "dream" architecture is still more
complex, attenuated and fantastic than in the Third,
and the simpler and more obvious wall-decorations
of friezes and arabesques play a smaller part in the
scheme.
In the painted details, apart from pictures and the
architecture, there is a great variety of conventional
patterns for bands of ornament; a remarkably elegant
treatment of the rinceau motive, in varied colors on
black or red (Plate XI, 6); and a corresponding inter-
pretation of carved pilaster-arabesques in painted
arabesques of yellow and other colors on a red, green or
dark background (Plate XI, 1-6). Much of this
decoration has the character of mere artisanship, but it
is extremely clever artisanship, and one has no right to
call for the higher qualities of art in the decorations of
ordinary houses.
The technic of the painting has been much discussed;
but it is now quite generally believed to have been
executed in true fresco on the wet plaster, at least in
the majority of examples; and then touched up and
many of the details worked over, in the finer examples
with encaustic painting. In this last process the pig-
ments were mixed in melted wax on a hot metal palette
177


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
and applied with a hot iron instrument instead of a
brush.1
Stucco Relief.
This form of mural decoration, as applied both to
walls and ceilings, has already been touched upon (see
ante, page 158). A comparison of the examples from
Rome and Pompeii respectively, discloses no funda-
mental difference of style or even quality between the
work in the two cities. The most notable examples in
Pompeii are those in the two chief baths—the Thermae
of the Forum and of Stabii. In these we have a rinceau
frieze, delicate panel-moldings, ideal or mythological
figures, Tritons, winged figures, dolphins and the like,
and free-hand arabesques, all treated with an animation
of design, a freedom from mechanical repetition and
hardness, and a delicacy of handling, worthy of Greece
and of the Capital, and surprising to find in a relatively
small provincial city (Figure 201; Plate XI, 7, 10).
This and the Roman stucco-work ought to be fruitfully
suggestive to modern decorators, for its effects are full
of charm, and yet not unduly costly or difficult to pro-
duce.
Besides these interior decorations in low relief, there
should be mentioned the decorations of the exteriors of
buildings by stucco details molded upon a rough core
of rubble or brick, and also the use of stucco for columns
and capitals in place of stone. It is easy to criticize
adversely this substitution of a fragile for a monumental
i In the Metropolitan Museum of Art at New York there are several sec-
tions of wall from a villa at Boscoreale, with decorations of the Third
Period,—mostly landscapes of buildings and farms.
178






Fig. 201.—Pompeiian Stucco Relief; from the Stabian Baths


POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
material in exterior ar-
chitecture; but given a
scarcity of marble and of
good building stone with
an abundance of soft tufa
and of "pozzolana" for
the making of cement-
stucco; given also the ne-
cessity of a rapid re-
building of almost an
entire town after the
earthquake of 63, and it
would be hard to imagine
a more artistic and satis-
factory result than the
Pompeiians produced in a
few short years with rub-
ble, stucco and paint.
Mosaic.

Fio. 202. Mosaic Floor Patterns.
Mosaic floors were al-
most all of Opus Grecanicum, laid in small tesserae of
marble and other stone or even tile, in patterns which
frequently suggest rug-designs. Each floor has a bor-
der and either an all-over patterned field (see Fig. 189),
a central medallion, or a spangled field (Fig. 202;
Plate XI, 9,11,12). The swastika appears in some of
these. The chained dog with the inscription Cave
Canem ("beware the dog") was a common decoration
of the prothyrum or vestibule. The finer houses boasted
elaborate pictures in color, made with very small tesserae,
181


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
and in some cases, no doubt, copying parts or the whole
of celebrated Greek pictures. Genre pictures and ani-
mal subjects were common. The greatest and finest of

Fig. 205. Table-Leo (Marble) and Bronze Candelabrum Details.
Naples Museum.
all mosaic pictures was found in the House of the Faun
and transferred to the Naples Museum; it represents
presumably the Battle of Issus, in a panel measuring
182


POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT
over 9 by 17 feet, and probably reproduces some cele-
brated Greek painting in Alexandria, from which city,
after Pompey's victory in 69 B.C., a strong Hellenic in-
fluence was exerted on Roman art. The portrait of
Alexander is unmistakable; the light and shade, fore-
shortening, drawing and color are remarkable and the
execution extraordinarily fine.
Mosaic was employed on walls as well as floors, though
sparingly. A singular freak or novelty of design was
the occasional combination of stucco-relief and mosaic.
Another use of mosaic was in the decoration of the
entire visible surface of various edicules, such as shrines
and niche-fountains (Figure 203, p. 185), upon which
the most brilliant colors of blue, red and green were
applied by the use of glass tesserae, and varied effectively
sometimes by scallop-shells inserted in bands or lines.
Furniture and Utensils.
The excavations at Pompeii and Herculanum have
thrown a light on the more intimate details of Roman
life not elsewhere to be obtained; not only by the paint-
ings of scenes from daily life and by the sgraffiti or
scribblings on walls, but even more by the great wealth
of utensils, implements and furniture of metal and
marble exhumed from the ruins and for the most part
transferred to the Naples Museum. Everything of
wood and cloth was destroyed by the eruption, but
marble and bronze and even iron were preserved by
their burial in the volcanic ashes, and we have set before
us the marble tables that adorned the atrium and peri-
style, the fountains and marble vases or basins, the
183


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
bronze couch-heads and frames, the candelabra and tri-
pods of bronze, the braziers, water-heaters, mirrors,
lamps, hair pins, fibulce or clasps, and innumerable other
objects of metal. Here again the Greek refinement
appears in all the details. Grotesques are sculptured
with consummate skill (Fig. 204); especially notice-
able are the lion's paws terminating in human or in
beasts' heads (Plate X, 11,12) and the winged monsters
on table-supports. The lightness and grace of the
bases and fluted standards of tripods and candelabra
suggest that from them in part came the inspiration
for the fantastically slender columns of the wall-paint-
ings (Fig. 205). It is interesting to compare these
slender candelabra and tripods with the massively splen-
did forms of Roman candelabra in bronze and in marble
in the Vatican (see Plate X). The Pompeiian tombs
and altars compared with the Roman show a somewhat
similar contrast in the detail, though less strongly
marked; there is more reserve, less monumental bold-
ness in the composition and in the detail.
Books Recommended:
Mau, trans, by Kelsey: Pompeii (New York, 1902).—
Mazois: hes mines de Pompeii (Paris, 1824).—Niccolini: he
case ed i monumenti di Pompeii (Naples, 1854-96).—Presuhn:
Die neueste Ausgrabvmgen zu Pompeii (Leipzig, 1882).—
Zahn: Ornemens de Pompeii (Berlin, 1828); Ornamente aller
Klassischen Kunstepochen (Berlin, 1860).
184








CHAPTER XII
EASLY CHRISTIAN OR BASILICAN ORNAMENT
It would be hard to point to two successive styles of
architecture and ornament further apart in spirit and
detail than those of Imperial Rome and Early Christian
Rome, yet they form no exception to the rule of style-
development by gradual transition. This transition is
for us obscured first by the widespread destruction of
early churches in the East during the Moslem conquests
and in the West during the persecutions under Dio-
cletian, and also by the fact that the beginnings of Chris-
tian symbolic art in Europe were made in the catacombs
and not above ground, and were thus humble and incon-
spicuous. But the Christian artists were Romans,
working upon the basis of Roman art traditions which,
up to the legalization of Christianity by Constantine in
312 A.D., were applied alike to secular and religious
buildings. It was the predominance after that date of
religious art employing a wholly new symbolism that
most effectively differentiated the Christian from the
pagan Imperial style.
Christian art began, then, nowhere as a consciously
new art, but everywhere in Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt,
Italy and Greece—as a phase of the existing local art.
In the Eastern empire, with Constantinople as its center,
187


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
religious architecture and decoration diverged rapidly
under Greek influence from the style of the West to
become what we call the Byzantine. In Italy, with
Rome as its center, they took on the development com-
monly called the Early Christian, or Latin, or—from
the resemblance of the churches to the secular basilicas
of the Empire—the Basilican style.
Early Christian Art Sepulchral.
The beginnings of Christian art are not, however, to
be looked for in architecture. Until the edict of Con-
stantine legalizing Chris-
tianity, its rites were, at
least in the West, prac-
tised in private, largely in
secret, and the language
of symbols took on in-
creased importance where
persecution so often fol-
lowed open speech. Upon
the walls of the cata-
combs, which served not
merely as places of sep-
ulture but also as meet-
ing-places for worship,
were painted scriptural
scenes and symbolic com-
positions: the Good Shep
herd aS a young man ^o.S06. Sarcophagus End, Ravenna.
carrying a lamb on his shoulder, in evident reminiscence
of the classic Herakles Kriophoros; the fish, the letters of


188


Fig. 207.—Detail, San Lorenzo fuoki le Mura

Fig. 210.—Apse Mosaic, San Clemente





BASILICAN ORNAMENT
which word in Greek Ox***) form an acrostic of the
Greek words for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior";
the vine, in allusion to Christ's saying, "I am the Vine,"
and other like representations. Later many other forms
were added: the Laharum—the standard borne by Con-
stantine's army after his victory of the Milvian Bridge,
in both forms * and ;the letters I H S, the first
three letters of the Greek ihSOYS, later taken to signify
both Iesus Hominum Salvator and In Hoc Signo
(vinces), the words heard or seen by Constantine in his
vision at the Milvian Bridge; the cyress-tree, symbolic
of the cemetery and hence of death and burial and
finally baptism, which was regarded as the burial of
the sinful nature;1 the emblems of the four evangelists
—the ox for Matthew, the lion for Mark, the head of a
man for Luke, the eagle for John; angels and cherubs,
funereal wreaths and festoons and finally the cross itself,
equal-armed after the Greek fashion, or with a long
standard after the Latin. Sheep to represent the flock
of the Church; the Paschal cup, the peacock and other
emblems of various significations were little by little
added to the list, and appear both in Latin and Byzan-
tine art. It is somewhat remarkable that the cross does
not appear until late; hardly at all before the latter part
of the fifth or the early sixth century. Many of the
Christian emblems were already familiar forms in
Roman pagan art. Angels were but Roman winged
genii endowed with a new significance; the vine, origi-
nally a Bacchic emblem, became a Christ-symbol; the
wreath and festoon were transferred from the service
i Romans vii, 4.
191


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
of Roman sacrifices to that of Christian burial. Most
of these forms were used at first with purely symbolic
intent, having significance only for the initiated. In
time, however, the symbolic intent, as always in the
evolution of decorative art, because subordinate to the
decorative: the symbol became a common ornament,
multiplied and endlessly varied in the decoration not
merely of sarcophagi (Fig. 206) and funereal chapels,
but of churches, baptisteries, oratories and tombs. All
the resources of mosaic, painting and carving were en-
listed in their representation. Figure sculpture alone
remained for centuries undeveloped, largely in conse-
quence of the hatred of pagan idolatry with which it
was so generally associated in the popular mind.
Architectural Ornament.
Early Christian art in the West made little of archi-
tecture. Two types of building predominated, the
basilican church and the baptistery. The first was a
simple three-aisled hall with a wooden roof, a semi-
circuliar apse for the clergy at the further end, and a
transverse porch or narthex across the entrance-front.
The two rows of columns which separated the broad cen-
tral aisle or nave from the side-aisles, supported each a
clearstory wall rising above the roofs of the side-aisles
and carrying the lofty central roof: these walls were
pierced with windows to light the nave. In the larger
basilicas there were double side-aisles, and in some in-
stances a transverse aisle, called the transept, as high and
nearly as wide as the nave, crossed it directly in front
of the apse. The arch forming the front of the apse
192


BASILICAN ORNAMENT
was generally called the triumphal arch, though in tran-
septal basilicas the name is applied to the great arch by
which the nave enters the transept. Excepting the half-
dome over the apse, no vaulting was employed in these
churches. The columns were taken from pagan ruins,
and so indifferent were the churchmen to architectural
regularity that the columns of the same row often dis-
play a great variety of sizes and even different orders
of capitals (Figure 207). This was partly due to the
poverty of the churches during the gloomy centuries fol-
lowing the fall of Rome, but all the evidence points to a
strangely prevalent indifference to architecture as an
art, which the three great basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul
and Sta.2 Maria Maggiore (all three originally built be-
fore the final fall of Rome) only emphasize by contrast.
The builders of basilicas were chiefly engrossed with the
applied decorations of their churches. Even in this
field, Roman art remained almost stationary for centu-
ries, depending largely upon Byzantine artists for a part
of this decoration.
Elements of Latin Ornament.
The architectural ornament consisted of the following
elements: (a) pavements of colored marble and hard
stone, in a combination of opus sectile and opus Alex-
andrinum;* (b) marble sheathing or wainscot on the
lower walls; (c) mosaic on the apse and its arch, on the«
triumphal transept arch, and on the clearstory walls;
rarely, in late examples, on the exterior of the front or
2 Hereafter S. and Sta. will be used for San, Santo and Santa.
* Sectile =3cut to shape; Alexandrinum — of small geometric units.
193


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
narthex and on cloister arcades; (d) the ornamentation
of the fixed furniture of the church; and (e), the decora-
tion by painting or otherwise of the wooden ceilings of
nave and aisles.
A. Floor Pavements.
Dates and periods are hard to fix and signify little in
this field of design, as the style remained practically un-

Fio. 208. Floor Mosaic, San Clehekte, Rome.
changed for centuries. The nave floor was commonly
divided into rectangular panels by broad bands of
colored marble in which were set guilloche patterns (Fig.
208) in opus sectile combined with Alexandrinum.
The panels were filled with field patterns of Alex-
andrinum surrounding discs or slabs of solid color
(see Plate XIII, 12). Porphyry, verd-antique, ser-
194


BASILICAN ORNAMENT
pentine, and white and yellow marble were the usual ma-
terials employed, and the resulting effects were rich and
yet sober, indestructible, and soft in color-harmony.
The round disks were cut from antique columns sawed
into slices, and all the ruins of antiquity were a quarry
for paving materials.
This form of floor-decoration is probably the most
effective ever devised. The contrast of the solid dark
red or green of the disks with the sparkle of the minute
patterns of Alexandrinum and the sweeping curves of
the huge guilloches surrounding them, produce a decora-
tive ensemble in every way admirable. Splendid ex-
amples survive in the churches of Sta. Maria in
Trastevere, Sta. Maria Maggiore, San Lorenzo, San
Marco and San Clemente. Floors of this description
were in vogue throughout the entire Middle Ages, in
Rome and its neighborhood and even in remote Italy, as
in the floor of the Byzantine St. Mark's Church at
Venice, dating from the 11th century.
B. Marble Wainscoting.
This system of wall decoration, often called incrusta-
tion, was inherited from ancient Rome, but was used
more extensively in the Eastern than in the Western
churches. The Roman basilicas have moreover been so
often remodeled that nearly every vestige of their in-
crustations has disappeared. Exceptions are found in
Sta. Agnese and in Sta. Sabina; in the latter the arch-
spandrels are inlaid with formal conventional patterns.
Usually the practice was followed of symmetrically pair-
ing slabs having similar veinings, as is shown in Fig.
195


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fio. 209. Byzantine Wainscot.
209, a Byzantine example from Constantinople. This
practice is common to the Basilican and Byzantine
styles.
C. Mosaic.
In this art, at least in that branch of it in which small
cubes or tesserce of glass are employed to form pictures
and patterns on walls and vaults (opus Grecanicum), it
is impossible to distinguish sharply between the Byzan-
tine and Basilican or Latin styles. Greeks from Con-
stantinople doubtless were often employed to execute
mosaics in Rome, and were probably the originators of
196


BASILICAN ORNAMENT
this form of Christian art. By means of minute tessera?
of glass "paste," pictures and patterns can be formed of
any desired combination and gradation of colors, gold
and silver effects being produced by gold- or silver-leaf
imprisoned between two layers of glass paste fused to-
gether. The deep blues, from lapis-lazuli to a soft
green-blue, the rich reds, soft yellows and greens and
brilliant gold and silver of this sort of mosaic made pos-
sible a splendor of color far transcending any form of
painting, and unrivaled in depth and intensity except by
the later invention of stained glass. Its magnificence
appealed strongly to the taste of the early Christian cen-
turies, and its adaptation to pictorial representation
fitted it to express that symbolism which the mental
habit of the times demanded. Accordingly there is
more of picturing than of pure ornament, which is con-
fined chiefly to narrow borders, often simulating jewels
set in gold. It remained for the Byzantines to develop
the possibilities of mosaic in the field of pure ornament.
The most important mosaics were in, or on, the apse-
vaults, and represented such subjects as the Kingdom of
God by the symbolism of the Shepherd and twelve sheep,
or some like composition. Similar subjects, with angels,
adorned the spandrels by the apse arch, and the trium-
phal transept-arch. The clearstory often bore pictures
of saints, angels and apostles, and Biblical scenes.
Among the finest of all Latin mosaics are those of the
apses of Sta. Pudenziana and Sta. Maria in Trastevere,
the apse and triumphal arch of St. Paul without the
Walls (S. Paolo fuori le mura) recovered from the ruins
of the original basilica and incorporated in the modern
197


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
reconstruction; of Sta. Prassede and Sta. Sabina, all at
Rome; and of the two San Apollinare churches at
Ravenna (sixth century). Of later date is the superb
rinceau decoration in the apse-head of San Clemente
(1096-1104): an exceptional example of conventional
ornament in mosaic in a basilica (Figure 210). Apart
from such applications of the rinceau, there were
few distinctive ornament motives in the mosaic decora-

Fio. 211. Early Christian Mosaic Borders.
tions. Fig. 211 shows two examples of mosaic bor-
ders, a from the palace of St. John Lateran, a mosaic of
the eighth century; 6 from the facade of Santa Maria in
Trastevere, both in Rome.
D. Ecclesiastical Furniture.
The chief elements in the fixed furniture of the
churches were the ciborium or baldaquin—the canopy
over the altar and tomb of the saint; the altar itself;
the choir-enclosure; and the two pulpits or ambones,
affected respectively to the reading of the Gospels and
of the Epistles, the former being adorned with a
198


BASILICAN ORNAMENT
columnar candelabrum. The
seats for the clergy were orig-
inally simple steps of marble set
around the apse, and the bishop's
throne was apparently of very
simple design. Later the clergy-
seats were removed from the
apse or bema and the altar
placed there in their stead,
though the ciborium remained
in its original position to mark
tKe tomb of the martyr or saint.
All this fixed furniture was of
marble, usually built up of flat
slabs inlaid with opus Alexan-
drinum. The ciborium was a
structure of four columns with
a pyramidal roof; the altar a
simple rectangular box or table
of marble; the choir-enclosure a
paneled marble parapet about three feet high; the am-
bones, elevated reading-desks on either side of the choir
reached by flights of steep stairs. The decoration of
these simple forms was often very rich, especially of the
pulpits and altar frontals (Fig. 212). It consisted of
inlaid patterns of opus Alexandrinum combined with
disks and guilloches of sectile, in principle like the floor-
mosaics, but finer in scale and execution. In the later
work, the geometrical units of the Alexandrine mosaic—
triangles, squares, circular segments, etc.—were often of
glass paste, producing much more brilliant effects than

Fio. 212. Ara Coeli, Rome.
199


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
the marble and porphyry units of the earlier works. It
appears to have been first used in the spiral flutings of
the gospel or Easter column. This brilliant form of
Alexandrine work, whatever its origin, became espe-
cially common in Southern Italy, and was practised
there and in Rome as late as the thirteenth century. It
is found in the cloisters of Monreale (twelfth century),
Fig. 213. Mosaic Details, Pulpit in Sax Lorenzo Fuori.
in Sicily, and in those of San Paolo fuori and St. John
Lateran at Rome (thirteenth century). Rome became
the center of an important school of marmorarii and of a
great industry in' marble mosaic, and its artists traveled
far to execute orders for church furniture and cloister-
arcades. The family of the Cosmati (from Cosmatus
or Cosmas, grandson of the founder of the school), were
especially noted for several generations, and their name
is often applied to the combination of sectile and Alex-
andrinum which they used and developed (Figs. 212,
213 from Ara Coeli and San Lorenzo Rome. See

Chapter XIV).
200


BASILICAN ORNAMENT
In the cloisters above mentioned, in the Easter
columns, and frequently also in the ambones (Fig.
212), twisted shafts or spiral flutings were used. The
introduction of this form of column, theoretically inap-
propriate for a support, into Italian art, may be traced
to the rich but ugly twisted column now in St. Peter's
at Rome, brought in the sixth century from Jerusalem,
where it was believed to have been a part of the "Gate
Beautiful" where St. Peter healed the lame man (Acts
iii, 2-10). It belongs probably to the decline of Roman
Imperial art, much later than St. Peter's time.
E. Ceilings.
Not one of the ceilings of the earlier basilicas remains
to us in its original form. It is unlikely that in churches
resplendent with marble and mosaic the ceilings were
as bare and barnlike as are to-day most of those which
have not been entirely remodeled in comparatively re-
cent times. We are, however, left to speculation as to
their precise treatment. The painted open-trussed
ceilings of several medieval churches of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries (Messina,4 Monreale, San Miniato
near Florence) show a somewhat similar treatment
though belonging to different styles, which points to the
existence of a strong ancient tradition (see Chapter
XIV). It is likely also that in some cases the trusses
were concealed by a decorative ceiling of wood, paneled
in coffers with rosettes, after the fashion of many Greek
and Roman ceilings, and richly painted and gilded.
But no such ceilings remain to our day. It may be,
* Destroyed in the earthquake of 1909.
201


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
however, that the splendid ceiling of Sta. Maria Mag-
giore is a reproduction or imitation of the original of
the fifth century.
Vaulted ceilings were chiefly confined to baptisteries
and tombs. The earliest of these are the dome over the
central space and the annular vault over the encircling
aisle of Sta. Costanza at Rome, erected by Constantine
presumably as the tomb of his daughter Constantia, but
from early times used as a baptistery. The decorations
of the dome have perished, but among the well-preserved
mosaics of the aisle-vault are vintage scenes (Figure
215), apparently pagan, but here transferred to the
service of Christian symbolism; and geometrical pat-
terns combined with small figure subjects. But in
nearly all domical and vaulted buildings after the fourth
century the Latin and Byzantine styles are one and
the same, and the ornament of such buildings will be
taken up in the chapter on Byzantine art.
From the preceding paragraphs it may be rightly in-
ferred that the Early Christian builders were singularly
lacking in architectural inventiveness. There is not a
single structural form, not an architectural innovation,
not an ornament of purely architectural character, that
can be credited to their initiative. Their art was sta-
tionary and unprogressive, and contrasts surprisingly
with the rapid progress and splendor of achievement of
the contemporary Byzantine art in the Eastern Empire.
Books Recommended:
Bunsen : Die Basiliken des christlichen Roms (Munich, n. d.).
—Essenwein: Ausgdnge der klassichen Baukunst (in Hand-
buck der Architektur, Darmstadt, 1886).—A. L. Frothing-
202



Fig. 215.—Mosaic in Vault of Sta. Costanza





BASILICAN ORNAMENT
ham: Monuments of Christian Rome (New York, 1908).—
Gerspach: La Mosa'ique (Paris, 1889).—Gutensohn and
Knapp: Derikmale der christlichen Religion (Rome, 1822-27).
—Hubsch: Monuments de Varchitecture chretienne (Paris,
1866).—Portheem: Uber dem dekorativen Stil in der altchrist-
lichen Kunst (Stuttgart, 1886).—Von Qttast: Die altchrist-
lichen Bauwerke zu Ravenna.—De Rossi: La Roma Soter-
ranea Christiana (Rome, 1864-77).'—N. H. J. Westiake:
History of Design in Mural Painting, from the Earliest Times
to the 12th Century (London, 1915).
205


CHAPTER XIII
BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
In striking contrast to the architectural poverty of the
Latin or Western ornament of the early church stands
the architectural richness of the decorative art which
grew up in the East Roman or Byzantine empire, and
which was founded upon and largely dominated by the
architecture. With the decline and fall of Rome, the
lamp of civilization passed to Constantine's eastern
capital on the Bosphorus and into the hands of the
Byzantine Greeks of Thrace, Macedonia, Asia Minor
and Syria. These Greeks, largely Asiatic, borrowing
freely and impartially from classic Greek, Roman and
Asiatic sources, developed with singular rapidity in the
fifth and sixth centuries new types of vaulted construc-
tion and a system of decoration of remarkable original-
ity and beauty, in which the Oriental love of brilliant
color and surface ornament was blended with the Occi-
dental appreciation of logical construction and pure
form. This Byzantine art culminated under Justinian
(527-565); invaded Italy, especially after the Byzantine
conquest of Ravenna; and spread through the entire
extent of the Byzantine empire. The decline that set
in soon after the brilliant reign of Justinian was a slow
decline, so that we find this art still productive in the
206


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
eleventh and twelfth centuries. Indeed, St. Mark's at
Venice, one of its most brilliant works, dates from 1047,
while offshoots from the parent stem throve for cen-
turies in the ecclesiastical buildings of Russia and
Armenia, and later in the impressive mosques of the
Ottoman Turks.
Leading Characteristics.
The Byzantine system of design and decoration was
in fundamental prin-
ciple like the Ro-
man in its use of a
decorative skin or
veneer of marble,
mosaic, or other fine
material upon a
structural mass or
core of brick, con-
crete or like coarser
material. The chief
difference, structur-
ally, was in the use
of the dome on pen-
dentives in place of
groined vaulting; Fw- 216- Detail raoM Spalato.
and decoratively, in an entirely new and original treat-
ment of detail. For the classic Roman play of light
and shade by means of relief carving and architectural
features the Byzantines substituted a system of decora-
tion in color and surface-etching, reducing all surfaces
as nearly as possible to unbroken planes or curves, sup-

207


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
pressing all avoidable projections and recessings. Mar-
ble incrustations and pavements were used with even
greater splendor than in Rome, and all vaults covered
with superb mosaics, or, when means were lacking for
the more splendid adornment, with pictures in fresco on
plaster.
Architectural Ornament.
Such details of architecture as were inherited from
classic Roman precedent were subjected to a flatten-

Fio. 217. Impost Cap, S. Vitale.
ing process by which they lost all their strong reliefs,
high lights and deep shadows. This process had begun
as far back as 300 a.d. in the Palace of Diocletian at
Spalato (Fig. 216), in another part of which one also
208


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
observes arches carried directly on columns, as in
Byzantine buildings. In the Spalato entablature, by
changes of profile and proportion the architrave has
been exaggerated, the frieze reduced to a mere molding,
the corona to a fillet, and the general profile of the cor-
nice almost to a 45° splay. In Hagia Sophia, the
masterpiece of Byzantine art, we find a similar treat-

Fio. 318. CoaiNTHiANesauE Cap, S. Apollikare Nuovo,
Ravenna.
ment of cornices and moldings, while capitals, shafts,
archivolts and all other features depart in an equally
striking degree from Roman models (Plate XII, 1, 2).
Impost Blocks.
The Byzantines invented a new feature, the impost-
block, to replace the bits of entablature which the
209


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Romans in their vaulted buildings interposed between
the capital and the spring of the vaulting. The Byzan-
tine impost-block, shaped like the inverted frustum of a
pyramid (Fig. 217; Plate XII, 3) was decorated
with monograms, crosses, lambs or other symbols, or sur-

Fio. 219. "Basket" Cap, S. Apollinabe Nuovo, Ravenna.
face-carving. The capital proper sometimes retained a
semblance of the Corinthian (Fig. 218) or Ionic
type; but was in other cases greatly simplified in mass
and covered with lace-like or basket-like patterns, some-
times deeply undercut—the basket type Fig. 219; Figure
232, page 221. These occur alike in Ravenna, Parenzo,
Constantinople, Salonica, Venice and Syria. In the
magnificent capitals of the great columns of Hagia
Sophia the impost-block is dispensed with (Plates XII,
210


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT


2; XIII, 2), and the
vigorous but graceful
mass of the capital,
with its corner volutes
and surface carving of
flat acanthus-leaves,
performs adequately its
true function of carry-
ing the heavy arches
that rest upon it. A
frequently occurring -
type with central and gggg ggggg
corner ridges (Fig.
219) may have been
suggested by uncut or
roughed-out Corinthian
caps, blocked-out in this
way for the subsequent
detailed cutting of the
central rosettes and volutes and the corner volutes, cau-
licoli and leaves.1
Shafts.
Shafts are of polished marble, granite or porphyry,
sometimes, as in Hagia Sophia, ringed with a number
of astragals or annulets, a treatment detrimental to the
best effect.
Spandrels and Soffits.
The soffits were decorated either with mosaic, as in
S. Vitale at Ravenna and the upper arcades of Hagia
i This ingenious and plausible suggestion seems to have originated with
the late Professor W. R. Ware.
iergiu3
Fig. 220. Above, Carved Spandrel from
Haoia Sophia; Below, Frieze from
St. Serqius.
211


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Sophia, or with marble, which was sometimes carved in
bands of lace-like patterns as in the lower arcades of
Hagia Sophia. The archivolt was marked by small
moldings (Plate XII, 2). Spandrels were commonly
incrusted with marble without other ornament, as in St.
Mark's; sometimes mosaic or fresco was used in either
pictorial or arabesque patterns (Plate XIII, 2), or
surface-carving was executed on the marble incrustation
(Fig. 220). The nave of Hagia Sophia shows both
of the last two treatments.
Carving.
In all Byzantine decorative carving, figure-sculpture,
high relief and indeed true relief of any kind are singu-
larly lacking. In their place the Byzantine artists de-

Fio. 221. Frieze, St. Joux Studios, Constantinople.
veloped a system of carving by incision, the entire pat-
tern lying in one plane, so designed that the background
formed a series of isolated pits or depressions, the total
effect being rich and highly decorative in spite of its flat-
ness. The patterns were chiefly based on the acanthus
and rinceau (Figs. 220, 221, 222); but the leaves and
stems were flattened, the lobes made pointed, the pipes
suppressed, the calyx-flowers and caulicoli of the rinceau
212


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
obliterated, and the points of the leaves so disposed as
to touch the concave sides of the stems of their neighbors,
or to meet each other point to point, forming innumer-
able triangular or quadrilateral pits or spots of back-
ground. The leaves were channeled with V-section
channels, and the whole produced an effect as of stone
lace work applied to a flat background (Figs. 224, 226).
The origin of this peculiar treatment of classic motives
has been variously explained. Viollet-le-Duc credits

Fig. 222. Acanthus Anthemions. Fig. 223.
it to Syrian, and chiefly to Jewish influence. Early
Christian and pre-Christian tombs in Palestine show a
somewhat similar style of dry and flat surface-carving,
with frequent use of the vine-motive which is also com-
mon in Byzantine ornament. In Central Syria inter-
esting remains from the third to sixth centuries also dis-
play kinship with Byzantine work (Fig. 240). On
the other hand, the same tendencies are visible in the
palace at Spalato (see ante, Fig. 216) in Dalmatia,
and to some extent in works of Constantine's time. The
213


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
most probable explanation of the genesis of the style,
so far as its decorative art is concerned, is found in the
influence of the Asiatic Greeks, who would most natu-
rally combine the Asiatic love of surface decoration in
minutely detailed all-over patterns, with the traditional
motives of Greek classic and Roman art. It was the
rise and preeminence of Constantinople in the sixth cen-

Fio. 224. Anthemion Frieze, St. Mask's, Venice.
tury under Justinian, that gave to this nascent style its
first great impulse. The artificers in mosaic, ivory-
carving, enamel and other arts from Constantinople,
many of whom had, during the preceding century, found
their chief employment in Italy and other foreign coun-
tries, were now abundantly and constantly employed in
their home Capital. Under Justinian's strenuous and
splendor-loving rule, the arts of design were developed
with an almost feverish activity. The flat surface-carv-
ing harmonized better with the flat color-decoration in
marble and mosaic than the more vigorous relief of the
214


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
Roman and Greek prototypes; and architectural light-
and-shade was treated in a wholly new spirit, and the old
types of capital and entablature gradually disappeared.
Moldings.
The profiles were weak; effect was sought by enrich-
ment rather than pro-
filing; and splay faces
covered with acanthus-
leaves frequently occur
(Fig. 222 and Plate
XII, 1, 2, 4). The
most characteristic
molding was the so-
called billet molding,
cut into small blocks or
dentils, often in two
rows in which the
blocks of one are op-
posite the spaces of the
other, as appears in the
lower part of 1 in Plate
XII. This molding
was especially used for framing the slabs of marble
veneer, and contributed strongly to the general effect of
a sparkling play of minute spots of light and shade
which the Byzantine artists loved.
Bands and Borders.
The fret, anthemion, vine and rinceau of classic art
all appear in Byzantine borders and friezes, but in

Fig. 225. Crosses and Anthemions.
215


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
modified forms, often exhibiting a singular reversion
towards earlier, long-forgotten types in Greek pottery.
The artists of the sixth to twelfth centuries could hardly
have known or even seen any antique Greek vases, and
it is hard to explain how and why this reversion took
place; it most probably came about through Roman ver-
sions of the anthemion and other vase ornaments, sur-
viving in Roman carvings and mosaics (compare
Fig. 225 with Fig. 135). What makes this rever-
sion the more interesting is that most of these Byzantine
anthemions are really acanthus leaves in disguise, as
may be seen by comparing them with unmistakable
acanthus leaves like those in Figs. 218 and 221. The
Byzantine carvers, by flattening the leaf and altering
its lobes, gradually worked it into a quasi-anthemion
form, and then under a similar decorative impulse did


Fig. 226. Acanthus Leaves (above); and Rinceau
fbom Bishop's.
b





BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
with it much as the Greek pottery-painters had done
with the anthemion and palmette, nearly or quite a thou-
sand years earlier.
The Binceau.
This has already been alluded to. The friezes from
St. Sergius (Fig. 220) and St. John Studios (Emir
Akhor Jami) at Constantinople (Fig. 221), are fine
examples of the typical Byzantine continuous rinceau-
movement uninterrupted by calyx-flowers, and the
merging of stem and caulicolus into one flat, flowing leaf
design; while in Fig. 226, b it is seen in its most de-
generate form, in a carved slab from the Bishop's Palace
at Ferentino. The vine also occurs frequently, espe-
cially in Italy, singularly recalling painted vine-patterns
on Greek vases (Fig. 227).
Symbols.
Symbolism played an important part in the carved
decoration as well as the mosaics of the Byzantines.
The vine, already alluded to, is often represented as
springing from the Paschal ~~
cup or chalice (Plate XII,
5); the cross often studded
with jewels and always
with spreading ends (Figs.
225, a, b; 228 and Plate
XII, 8, 9); the cypress-tree, symbol of the grave, and
hence of the mystic burial of baptism (see ante, page
189), and in this sense carved on baptismal fonts and
plutei and elsewhere in baptisteries (Fig. 228) in a form

Fiq. 227. Vine Border, S. Vitale.
219


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

singularly like an anthemion; the
peacock, as the symbol of the soul
(Figure 229; Plate XII, 9)—
these are the most frequently re-
curring symbols. An effective
decoration for square or circular
panels was devised by making the
four arms of the cross frame four
acanthus-anthemions, as in Fig.
225, a from Hagia Sophia.
In later work, especially in
Italy where Lombard influence
may account for it, monsters and
grotesques sometimes appear. It
is curious to note how often pea-
cocks (as in Figure 229; Plate
XII, 9), lions or monsters, even griffins, as in the exam-
ple from Sta. Maria Pomposa (Figure 235) are placed
symmetrically at the base of a cross or tree, recalling a
favorite device of Greek and Roman art, derived origi-
nally from Assyrian and Hittite prototypes.2
Guilloches and Interlace.
The Byzantine artists expanded the ap-
plications of the Greek guilloche-motive
into a whole system of interlaced patterns,
in which squares, lozenges and circles,
large and small, are combined with great
variety and ingenuity. The more elab-
Fio. 228. Detail of
Cross in Fio. 225.

Fig. 230a.
2 See Figure 34 and cf. Goblet d'Alviella, "The Migration of Symbols,"
pages 122-140.
220


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
orate examples belong to the later developments.
Some of the most complex designs are found in Ar-
menia, where they almost rival the Celtic interlaces (see
page 271). Whether these are due to Celtic manuscripts
carried into Armenia, or whether the Celtic interlaces
were themselves descended from Byzantine sources is
not clear (Fig. 230a; Figures 230, 231; Plate XII, 10).
Perforated panels were a special delight of the Italo-
Byzantine designers; they are found chiefly at Ravenna,
serving as parapet-panels. Figure 231 shows a detail
of one of the most splendid of these remarkable works
(see also Plate XII, 9).
Floors and Incrustations.
The rich and varied marbles of the East supplied
abundant materials for decorative pavements and wall-
veneers. In principle these resemble those of the Latin
buildings; guilloche-patterns or borders frame large
circles or rectangles of marble, porphyry and verd-an-
tique in the floors; while thin slabs of veined marble set
so as to form symmetrical veining-patterns, encrust the
walls up to the spring of the main arches and vaults (Fig.
209; Plate XII, 1). The monotony of their smooth
surfaces was broken by the billet-moldings with which
the slabs and bands were framed. The composition of
this wall-paneling was not always good; the apse of
Hagia Sophia, for example, is a jumble of panels with
little or no organic system in their arrangement. The
general effect, however, of this veneering in veined
marbles is always rich and yet sober; and in St. Mark's
at Venice it reached the highest perfection of internal
harmony.
221


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 233. From Haoia
Mosaic.
The crowning splendor of Byzantine decoration was
in its mosaics. These at first
differed in no wise from the
Latin (see page 196), which
were, indeed, probably executed
in many cases by Byzantine ar-
tists. But the domes and vaults
of the East gave special oppor-
tunities for the application of
this noble form of decoration,
and these were freely availed
of. Conventional ornament was
made to play a far more im-
portant role in the Byzantine
Sophia. than in the basilican churches,
though figure-subjects
and pictures still form the
chief decoration. Hagia
Sophia and the Kahrie
Mosque (once a Byzan-
tine church called Mone
tes Choras) at Constan-
tinople and the two
churches of San Apolli-
nare, the Episcopal pal-
ace and San Vitale at
Ravenna offer the finest
examples of this art, the
cubes or tessera? of glass
being very small, espe- F,G 234- ^^*eC°™aGUS ElfD'


Fig. 235.—From Sta. Maria Pomposa
Fig. 236.—Mosaic, Tomb of Galla
Placidia

Fig. 237.—Ivory Throne of Bishop Maximian, Ravenna





BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
daily in the first-named. One of the earliest examples
of the application of glass mosaic of this type to vault-
ing is the tomb of Galla Placidia, the daughter of Theo-
dosius, at Ravenna; the barrel-vaults of the cross arms
and the rude dome of the central lantern being adorned
with remarkably effective pictures and patterns, some
on a blue and some on a gold ground (Figure 230).
The gold ground predominates in Hagia Sophia and in
some other examples and imparts a richness of effect not
otherwise attainable (Plate XIII).
In many Byzantine mosaic pictures there appear rep-
resentations of shrines, niches and other architectural
subjects derived from sarcophagi, church furniture and
minor structures of which no trace has survived. Simi-
lar forms are seen in manuscript illuminations and in
ivory carvings and sarcophagi (Fig. 236).
Church Furniture.
Few examples remain of this branch of decorative
design for which the Byzantines were so celebrated.
The accounts of the furniture of Hagia Sophia given
by Paul the Silentiary describe an almost incredible
splendor of jewels, gold and silver. The most impor-
tant work of this sort in metal now extant is the "Pala
d'Oro" or silver-and-gold altar-piece of St. Mark's in
Venice, by Constantinople artists of the twelfth cen-
tury (but much altered in more recent times). Plate
XII, 8, figures the end of an Italo-Byzantine silver chest
in Florence. Of works in marble there exists in the
basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna a By-
zantine baldaquin or ciborium, and in Venice the much
225


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
later ciborium of St. Mark's, besides a fine octagonal
canopy and pulpit in the north aisle. In the cathedral
of Ravenna the ivory throne of Bishop Maximianus is
carefully preserved (sixth century, Figure 237). Ivory
carving, indeed, was one of the special arts of Byzan-
tine civilization; book-covers, diptychs and triptychs in
this material exist in museums and private collections.
Ivory was a precious material in the Middle Ages, and
the art displayed in these small works combined the
pictorial composition of the manuscript illuminators
with the technic and the ornament of the marble-carvers,
but with more freedom in the relief. The cross, pictorial
scenes and grapevine borders of the throne of Maxim-
ianus just referred to, are precisely in the style of the
diptychs, though on a larger scale.
In many of the minor works of church equipment and
furniture enamel was used with or without the accom-
paniment of gems in elaborate settings, to impart rich
color to the object decorated. The field of each color
was slightly hollowed out in the metal—silver, gold or
copper—and in this shallow pool the separate colors
were fused in the furnace. This process, called
champleve enameling, was carried in the path of Byzan-
tine trade to France where, at Limoges, an important
center of this art-industry was developed in the twelfth
to fourteenth centuries. Fig. 238 represents the
Crown of Charlemagne, a fine example of late Byzan-
tine goldsmith's work of the ninth century. There are
in various libraries highly ornate book-covers in gold,
enamel and precious stones of the ninth to twelfth cen-
turies.


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
Textile Ornament.
The arts of weaving and embroidery were highly de-
veloped by the Byzantine civilization, which delighted

Fig. 238. The Crown of Charlemagne.
in splendor of official apparel. Byzantine stuffs, fabrics
and embroideries are found in many museums, mostly
those of the later phases of the art (ninth to twelfth
centuries). Fig. 239 shows an example from the
Museum of Bamberg.
Manuscript Illumination.
Christianity has been called the religion of a book.
In no other religion has the written word played so
important a part. Long before the final fixing of the
canon of the New Testament, individual books—gospels,
epistles, writings by the early Fathers—were being
227


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
multiplied by skilful scribes and widely circulated by
missionaries. The development of monasticism stimu-
lated the production of books and led to the establish-
ment of schools of calligraphists and miniaturists or
illuminators. With increasing veneration for the sacred
writings there came increasing splendor in the manu-
scripts, which were embellished by pictures, illuminated
initials and decorative borders. In this new art the By-
zantine Greeks showed the highest skill, and the result
was the final domination of the Byzantine taste and
style in this field, as in the closely allied art of mosaic
picturing and ornament.
The initial letters of chapters or books were made
into ornamental designs covering a considerable por-
tion of the page, and painted with brilliant red, blue,
green and gold, often with accompaniments of an archi-
tectural character with or without figures. Illustrations
of scriptural scenes and allegorical compositions were
often introduced, covering an entire page. In these
the drawing and coloring followed the formulas that
governed the design of like figures in mosaic and fresco
decorations of the churches; formulas that became
hieratic and were finally written down in inflexible rules
that have survived to modern times in the monasteries
of Mt. Athos,8 and in the icons of the Russian churches.
This stiff and conventional style of painting was the
parent of Italian religious painting in the Middle Ages;
and indeed of all Christian medieval painting, architec-
tural as well as in manuscripts. For the Byzantine
manuscripts were scattered through the monasteries and
» Cf. Crowninshield, "Mural Painting."
228






Carvings from Church&s ct fiokhctaanS Chouamta; Georgia.
Fiq. 241.—Georgian and Armenian Cabvino


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
:::::::::::::: ?9::::::c::::::
Fio. 239. Byzantine Fabric,
Bamberg.
ern myths, even those of
pagan origin, to supply
motives for elaborate in-
terlaces in borders and in-
itials.
Syrian Christian
Ornament.
In Syria, Christian art
took on a special form in
the absence of the brick,
timber, marble and glass
on which Latin and By-
zantine art so largely de-
pended for artistic ex-
pression. The buildings
of central Syria show a
churches of Western as
well as Eastern Europe,
and formed the models
from which both the
Celtic and Scandinavian
| schools of manuscript
decoration took their ear-
ly inspiration. In these
interlace, which is a sub-
ordinate element in the
Eastern models, became a
dominant feature, though
it made use of the North-

Fio. 240. Syrian Carving.
281


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT
Books Recommended:
BYZANTINE
As before, Essenwein, Gehspach, Hubsch, Von Quast.
Also, Bayet: L'Art byzantin (Paris, n. d.).—H. C. Butler:
Architecture and other Arts in Northern Central Syria (New
York, 1903).—A. Dehli: Selections of Byzantine Ornament
(New York, 1890).—Diehl: Manuel de Vart byzantin (Paris,
1910).—G. G. Gagabin: Sbornik bisantiskikh i drevnerusskikh
ornamentor (St. Petersburg [Petrograd], 1887).—Moscow
Museum of Abt : Histoire de Vornement russe du Xme au XVI1"6
si^cle d'apres les manuscrits (Paris, 1870).—Ongania: La
basilica di San Marco (Venice, 1881-88).—R. P. Pulxan: On
the Decoration of Basilicas and Byzantine Churches (Papers of
the R. I. B. A.; London, 1875-76).—Salzenberg: Die alt-
christlichen Baudeukmale von Constantmopel (Berlin, 1854).—
N. Simakov: L'Ornement russe (St. Petersburg [Petrograd],
1882).—Texier and Pullan: Byzantine Architecture (Lon-
don, 1865).—Vioi/let-le-Duc: L'Art russe (Paris, 1877).—
De Vogue: Syrie Centrale (Paris, 1865-77).
28S


CHAPTER XIV
romanesque oenament
1. Italian and Feench
A strictly chronological treatment of ornament his-
tory might be held to require taking up at this point the
beginnings of Mohammedan ornament; but a due re-
gard for continuity prescribes rather the following of
the current of European Christian art through the Mid-
dle Ages before taking up the diverging art of the Mos-
lems, which will therefore be reserved for another vol-
ume.
The name Romanesque has been so widely applied to
the various phases of European art in its transition from
the Latin and Byzantine phases to the so-called Gothic,
that it will be retained in this discussion. It is, indeed,
not an inappropriate term, since the art of Italy and
Western Europe from about the ninth to the thirteenth
century sprang from roots easily traced back to pri-
mary sources in the art of classic Rome.
The Romanesque Period.
Throughout all Europe, except in parts of the Byzan-
tine Empire, the centuries from the fall of Rome to the
twelfth constituted a period of chaos, upheaval, and
gradual evolution. War, famine, and pestilence re-
234






Fig. 214. Detail from Front of
San Michele, Lucca
Fig. 245.—False Window, San
Stefano, Bologna


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
for which Constantinople was famous, manuscripts,
ivory-carvings, ecclesiastical goldsmith's work and em-
broideries. Mosaic, however, was never in demand in
the West; form rather than color dominates Roman-
esque art, and the resources of the abbeys and parishes
were bestowed upon large and spacious edifices rather
than upon such costly adornments as that of mosaic.
Italian Romanesque Ornament.
Italy being not a state but a group of states and prov-
inces, there appear at least five more or less distinct
styles in her early medieval art; the Basilican or Latin
in Rome and its neighborhood; the Byzantine in Venice,
Ravenna and on the East coast generally; the Tuscan
in Etruria (Tuscany) from Pisa to Florence and even
Siena; in the South, especially in Sicily, the Siculo-
Arabic, a compound of Arabic, Byzantine, Latin and
Norman elements; and in the North the Lombard, in
which the Germanic spirit of the race which overran
northern Italy in the seventh century expressed itself
in new forms and combinations.
But while these may be properly called distinct styles,
they so frequently overlap and mingle that it is not
always easy, nor indeed reasonable, to classify a given
building definitely in one of these categories. The
unity of the Church, the migrations of monks and other
ecclesiastics and especially of builders and carvers, con-
tributed to a constant blurring of the boundary lines of
these styles.
The Basilican and Byzantine styles have been already
discussed, but in many examples from the other styles
238


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
their influence is clearly seen in various details. More-
over, these two styles in their later manifestations un-
derwent developments and changes, from the influence
of Western art, which differentiate them from their ear-
lier phases. Basilicas of the Latin type continued to
be built until the thirteenth century, and the art of the
mosaicist in opus Alexandrinum was developed in great
splendor by successive generations of the Cosma family
and their apprentices, in altars, pulpits, and other archi-
tectural applications, so that this sort of inlaid geometric
mosaic is commonly known as Cosmati work. Roman
artists carried it into southern Italy and Sicily, where
it mingled with the Siculo-Arabic work. The ex-
amples referred to in Chapter XII, and illustrated in
Figs. 211-213, may be compared with the altar-front
from Ferentino in Figure 243 and the columns from
Monreale in Figure 249. In Florence especially, ex-
amples of the persistence of this art may be seen in va-
rious details of the cathedral and Giotto's campanile
(Figure 394).
Tuscan Romanesque.
In Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia and the neighborhood there
was developed in the llth-13th centuries an ecclesias-
tical style based on the basilican plan but dressed in an
architectural apparel of black and white marble in
stripes, adorned with purely decorative arcades; re-
cessed arches springing from pilasters against the lower-
story walls, and superposed tiers of free arches on
columns in the upper stories of the front. Inlaid pat-
terns, chiefly geometric, adorned the tympana and
239


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
spandrels of the lower arches (Fig. 242). Carving
was sparingly used, but the capitals were carefully
carved on classic models, and the shafts sometimes
carved with rinceaux of equally classic character (Ca-
thedral and Baptistery of Pisa, eleventh century). In
Lucca the Cathedral and the later church of S. Mi-

Fig. 242. Ixlaid Patterns, Pisa Cathedral.
chele (Figure 244) show rich inlays of black on white,
with fantastic grotesques, due perhaps to Lombard in-
fluence which is also seen in some of the columns, and in
the lions or monsters which serve as bases to columns in
many churches. Some of the carving at Lucca sug-
gests Byzantine influence. The use of striping in dark
marble and of inlay is seen as far east as in Bologna.
Figure 245 shows a window of the Baptistery of S.
Stefano, where Byzantine influence appears in the inter-
laces of the perforated panels set in the striped wall.
The richly carved lintels of doors in the church of S.
Giusto, Lucca (Figure 246), show the mixture of influ-
ences which impinged on art in Tuscany.
In Florence and San Miniato, paneling in black and
white takes the place of striping—a less correct treat-
240








ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
ment structurally though more decorative. In some
churches, especially in the Baptistery at Florence and
in San Miniato, the pavements show inlaid patterns in
black and white which could hardly be surpassed for
decorative beauty (Figure 247). Altar and altar-rail
at S. Miniato are treated with inlays of the same
sort.
The style was occasionally imitated in remote cities,
as at Troja in southeast Italy, where the cathedral is
decorated with recessed arcades after the Pisan manner.
The Siculo-Arabic Style.
The Arab conquest of Sicily and the subsequent ex-
pulsion of the Mohammedans by the Crusaders, with the
establishment of a Norman
kingdom, and the persist-
ence of Byzantine tradi-
tions, all combined to de-
velop a singularly mixed
but effective style of decora-
tion. The Arabic pointed Fro. 250. Cunc Decoration,
arch, inlaid marble wain- Pa"rmo-
scot with a serrated parapet-cresting after the fashion
of Cairo, Byzantine glass-mosaic on the upper walls and
occasional vaults, are conspicuous in such edifices as the
cathedrals of Monreale (Figure 248), the Martorana
and Palatine chapels at Palermo, and others. Latin or
"Cosmati" mosaics inlaid in twisted shafts adorn the
cloisters of Monreale (Figure 249; see also Figure 214),
and some of the pulpits and altars. The open-timber
ceilings are richly painted and gilded; Cufic inscriptions

243


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
appear in these
(Fig. 250) and
Arabic geometric
interlace in the
pavements. The
bronze doors are
by North Italian
artists (Fig. 251),
and here and
there even Lom-
bard details occur.
Color appears ev-
erywhere, in Ori-
ental profusion.
Except in the cap-
itals, many of which are antique, carving is little used,
but some of the cloister capitals at Monreale are fine
examples of decorative sculpture, showing both Norman
and Byzantine influences (Figure 248) .* It was a
brilliant, confused, and short-lived style.
Lombard.
This style was not confined to Lombardy; it prevailed
through Emilia and as far east as Verona, and south
even into Calabria and Apulia. The Lombards, a Ger-
manic race by origin, introduced into Italian art an
entirely new note of solemnity and somber humor, ex-
pressed in the rugged massiveness of their churches and
the grotesques in their carving. They contributed to
architecture decorative forms and devices which spread
i The spiral and zigzag flirtings shown in Figure 249 were originally filled
with Cosmati-work of inlaid mosaics.

Fio. 251. Detail from Bronze Doors,
Monreale Cathedral.
244


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
into western Romanesque art. Among these were the
arcade cornice (Fig. 252), long pilaster strips—flat,
semi-cylindrical, or spirally twisted; the round or wheel-
window (Figure 253), the col-
umn resting on a monster's
back; the splayed doorway
adorned with many columns in
the jambs and with successively
recessed or stepped arches above
the door-lintel (Figure 254).
The open arcade under the
Fig. 252. Arcaded Corn-
eaves of many Lombard s. m*™, paiua.
churches is a part of the architecture rather than orna-
ment. Many of these features are common in the
French and Germanic Romanesque, though they origi-
nated in Italy. There was a constant interchange be-
tween the Benedictine monasteries of these countries;
the Crusades brought Western hordes into Italy, and
such commerce as there was aided the dissemination of
architectural ideas as well as of commodities. More-
over the mcestri comadrii, the skilled masons and carvers
organized into guilds of traveling artisans, were almost
wholly recruited from the North Italian country, and
they carried their art into remote regions of Italy and
into other lands.
Grotesques.
The medieval "bestiaries," of which copies have come
down to our day, prove the symbolic significance of
many of the grotesque sculptures, each beast and part
of a beast having a specific meaning, so that each com-

245


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
bination of heterogeneous parts to form a grotesque
monster, signified a particular combination of definite
ideas, as in a symbolic language. But the medieval
sculptors of Lom-
bardy, with imagi-
nations saturated
with the medieval
superstitions which
peopled air, earth
and sea with count-
less invisible be-
ings, mostly mal-
efic, loving to blast
and blight every
perfect and beauti-
tiful thing, but
which could be di-
verted by charms,
incantations and
symbols, and even
by marring in ap-
pearance the seem-
ing perfection of
a human work2—
these Germanic
Italians of the
North treated with
a species of humor-
ous decorative art the wild and fantastic symbols and
2 This superstition survives in a real but attenuated form in the jettatura
of Italy and the "evil eye" of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Fig. 255. Cap from Aubona; Symbols of
Evangelists on a Pulpit; Centaub
from San Ambrot.io, Milan.
246








ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
talismans which grew out of this superstition (Fig.
255).
Other Forms.
Not a little of the Italian ornament of the Roman-
esque period is hard to classify under any particular
style-name, being the product of local or of conflicting
influences. Thus the wheel-windows show considerable
variety. The marble perforations of the Cathedral of
Troja suggest Oriental prototypes, while the traceries
of those of S. Pietro and of Sta. Maria at Toscanella
are designed on quite different principles. Certain
Italian manuscripts of this period betray the hand or
influence of Irish scribes. This variety of style in
Italian Romanesque art presents an interesting contrast
to the impressive unity of general effect in Western, es-
pecially French, work of the same period.
THE FRENCH ROMANESQUE
General Character.
French Romanesque ornament is completely domi-
nated by the monastic architecture. Previous to about
1020 architecture in France was extremely crude, ex-
cept in Provence, while Roman traditions still imparted
a certain elegance to ecclesiastical buildings.3 By 1000
a. D. the feudal system on the one hand, and the monastic
on the other, had attained coherent form, and were domi-
nant over the developments of the nascent civilization.
Architecture was chiefly military and monastic, and
while the feudal lords built strong castles, the monks
'Consult ReVoil, "Architecture romane du Midi de la France:" plates.
249


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
1=1
F'
r t
ti1 'J^L* *J • J L*J *1^J ^^i* LL^iJ ^*JJi' l^.* l'*J?
i sm i in sunn>y>i>w%-iriif&>wa'cv»:
were learning to build stone
churches with vaults. In
the absence of antique ruins
to serve as quarries of ready-
made decorative material,
and without either models or
trained artisans for the pro-
duction of mosaic, carving
and inlay, the arts of decora-
tion had to be created anew.
The art that slowly emerged
from this destitution was a
struggling art, at first crude
in design and execution. To
its earliest phase the French
give the name of Carolingian
art. The architecture was
massive, thick-jointed, spar-
ing in ornament except about
Fo, ^™L°rHthe doorways, at which the
builders' highest art was be-
stowed. As the eleventh century advances, this art be-
comes finer, richer, more knowing, still vigorous but bet-
ter in technic; the accessory arts multiply and grow in
perfection. There developed a certain unity of general
style throughout France, controlled to a remarkable ex-
tent by a rigid logic of construction. More than in any
previous style in any land, the forms not merely of the
structure proper, but also of its decoration, were deter-
mined by the special exigencies of materials and struc-
tural science. Although provincial schools appear in

250


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
the architecture (Provence, Charente, Auvergne, Bur-
gundy, Normandy, Ile-de-France) the decorative de-
tails do not vary greatly. True, the Byzantine influ-
ence is more clearly traceable in some districts, the clas-
sic in others, especially in Provence (Fig. 256), but
it requires a closer discrimination to detect these pro-
vincial variations in the ornament than in the architec-
ture, in the details than in the composition, and far more
than is required to classify Italian ornament of the same
period. This is due to the dominance of the great mon-
astic orders, especially of the Benedictines; uniformly
skilful artists, they tended to develop a common style
wherever they established their abbeys.
Architectural Ornament: Columns and Capitals.
The French Romanesque column is a descendant from
the classic column, modified by its new uses as a mem-
ber of a compound pier or as a jamb-shaft or nook-col-
umn in a door or window. Lombard or comacine influ-
ences seem to have had a share in its development. The
shaft is straight, without en-
tasis or taper (Figure 257);
sometimes, in late doorways,
richly carved with geometric
patterns (Figure 260). The
base is of the Attic type,
often with corner-leaves fio. 264. Baseo with
(Figure 264). The capitals spUM-
are generally of the Corinthian type, but with a heavy
abacus added, and the proportions and details modified
in innumerable ways (Figure 265; Plate XIV). At

251


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Moissac they have a decidedly Byzantine character.
The introduction of grotesques, both human and bestial,
gave rise to new types (Figures 259, 261). Occasion-
ally a species of cushion capital is used, especially in
Normandy, the upper part square, with a heavy abacus;
later the chisel comes into more general use, and the
established types are greatly varied by the introduction
of figures, jewel-studded bands, and foliage of new
types.4 In Plate XIV, 3, 4, 5, the Corinthian tradition
is clearly shown in all the capitals.
Carving; Bands and Panels.
The classic acanthus-leaf, rinceau, and even anthe-
mion appear constantly in various modifications, and in
♦ Consult article "Sculpture" in V.-le-Duc "Dictionnaire Raisonnd de
l'archltecture."

Fig. 265. Late Romanesque
Capital, Paris.
the lower part scalloped or
convex-fluted once or more
times on each face. A very
beautiful double capital is pre-
served in the Museum at Tou-
louse (Plate XIV, 1). An-
other double cap is Number
2 in the same Plate, from
Chalons-sur-Marne. The con-
trast in style illustrates the
difference between the carving
of Provence, with strong By-
zantine tinge, and that of the
Ile-de-France in the North.
Some of the earlier work is
hewn out with the mason's-ax;








A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fio. 267. Ac-
anthus
Leaves fbom
AvaLLON.
entire design is carved in high relief and
sometimes deeply undercut (Figs. 266,
HJflSj 268). The double rinceau sometimes ap-
pears, enclosing the large leaves in ovals
or in heart-shaped openings (Fig. 269).
In almost all cases the rinceau represents
the grape-vine and its ecclesiastical sym-
fin| iM^Sj holism is obvious.
The framed anthemion, so common in
Byzantine carving, hardly occurs in
French Romanesque friezes or bands.
Towards the end of the twelfth century,
however, we find in its place, and evidently
descended from it, an ornament consisting of broad
fluted triple or five-lobed leaves enclosed by branching
leaves often adorned with jewels.
Sometimes the central leaf of the
trilobe is carried up under the fram-
ing leaves and curled over it (Fig-
ure 262). This motive seems to
have come in from Germany, and is
frequently found in painted orna-
ment, both on walls and on manu-
scripts.
In certain regions along the paths
of Byzantine and Lombard influ-
ence, beasts and human figures are
shown twined into the convolutions
of the rinceau (Plate XIV). Ar-
cading as a decorative external fea-
ture never attained in France the

268. Rinceau,
AVaLLON.
256


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
importance it achieved in
northern Italy. The two
most noted examples are
the fronts of Notre Dame
at Poitiers and of the
Cathedral of Angouleme
(about 1130). These be-
tray Italian and Byzan-
tine influence; the arches
are not free as at Pisa,
but attached to (or re-
cessed in) the wall, fram-
ing statues, windows or
reliefs. Internally, how-
ever, wall-arcades occur
frequently, especially as
decorations of the side-
aisle walls under the win-
dows; such arcades are
called arcatures. In
Normandy the arches are
sometimes interlaced, and
this device was later
adopted in England and is common in Anglo-Norman
churches.
Moldings.
With the new types of building a new art of molding-
profiles begins to appear. Whether its origin is in the
Lombard doorways or is local, its development was con-
trolled by that logic of structure to which allusion has

Fro. 269. Double Rinceatt,
Notre Dame, Paris.
257


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
already been made, and which specially distinguishes
French Romanesque architectural art. All arches being
stepped, and their square edges, as already described,
cut into roll-moldings between chamfers, there resulted
in doorways and pier-arches an alternation of plane,
hollow and convex surfaces which proved extremely ef-
fective (Figures 257, 258). Out of this simple treat-
ment was developed a more elaborate system of varying
hollows, rolls and flat surfaces, which the English Gothic
artists were to carry in later times to the highest per-
fection (see Chapter XVIII). In contrast with the
classic tradition, according to which all important mold-
ings project from the general surface, the medieval
builders developed the contrary system of moldings cut
into the surface. The exception is in the projecting
drip-moldings which defined the extrados of the arch on
exterior walls, especially over doorways.
Doorways.
As a general rule the outer step or "order" of a series
of stepped doorway-arches was brought down upon
an inpost carried by a column set flush with the outer
face of the wall, or upon the square pier formed by the
wall itself. Sometimes, however, it was returned into
the wall, as in Figure 258, or abutted into projecting
members, as in Figure 259. Each "order" of the series
of diminishing arches was carried by its own distinct
supports, whether columns (jamb-shafts) or piers, as
in Figures 257, 258. The various orders were either
plain, with roll-moldings, as already explained, or
carved with enrichments often of great splendor of ef-
258








ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT

feet. It was upon the church doorways
that the monastic artists lavished their
richest ornaments. In the North, geo-
metric motives were especially promi-
nent, and among these the zigzag was
particularly favored in Normandy (d
in Fig. 270), cut into the face of the
arch, or into the soffit, or both; the
"broken-stick" ("bdtons-rompus"), the
lozenge and dog-tooth or pyramid (i)
are also common. Byzantine influence
is discernible in the billet (e, Fig. 270),
and in the flat treatment of figure-re-
liefs in the tympanum as at Carrenac
(Figure 257). Imbrications (g),
checkers (&), "nail-heads," foliage-
forms and grotesques are also of fre-
quent occurrence. Figures 261, from St. Pierre at
Aulnay, and 258 from Rouen Cathedral (Porte St.
Jean) show the extraordinary richness of some of these
Romanesque doorways. The Rouen example belongs
to the early 13th century and is therefore early Gothic,
but it is still full of the spirit, and shows many of the
details, of the Romanesque.
Horizontal moldings receive but little emphasis in
French Romanesque ornament, and there are no dis-
tinctly typical horizontal moldings, except those of the
Attic bases of the columns already mentioned. Hori-
zontal bands, however, are not uncommon, richly carved,
often with anthemions or palmettes (Fig. 271) which
betray the ever-present Byzantine influence. In place
Fio. 270. Ro-
manesque Or-
naments.
261


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
of the classic cornice the monastic
builders had only the Lombard
arcaded cornice, or the more elab-
orate corbel table. In minor posi-
tions the simplest copings with one
or two moldings suffice.
Corbel Tables.
These may have originated in
the classic modillion-cornice, or
they may have been evolved out of
Fw. 27i. Carved Bands, the necessity of providing a pro-
fro* sx. Aubik, Anoers. jecting shelf at the top of the wall.
In Provence (Southern France) the first is doubtless
the correct explanation, as the corbel-table of the gable
over the porch of St. Trophime at Aries has corbels
carved with the acanthus in evident reminiscence of
classic modillions. In Central and Northern France
the corbels are usually grotesques of masks or monsters.
In some cases they are found in conjunction with the
Lombard arcaded cornice, particularly in Auvergne and
in Southern France. Corbels for other purposes than
the support of a corbel-table were of varied forms, often
resembling capitals with a "drop" or "cul-de-lampe" at
the bottom, formed either of foliage or of figures or gro-
tesques.
Figure Sculpture.
It was during this period that the French began the
development of that wonderful art of decorative sculp-
ture which they carried to so marvelous a height of artis-


262


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
tic beauty in the portal-sculptures of their Gothic cathe-
drals, at Chartres, Amiens and Reims. At first they
were contented with reliefs in the portal tympanium
(Figure 257) but free statues were later set in the deep
jambs of the portals, representing saints and apostles
and martyrs: this practice appears to have begun about

Fio. 272. Fbench Romanesque Grotesque.
the middle of the 12th century (Figure 260). By-
zantine and classic influences and traditions dominate in
the earlier sculpture (Plate XIV, 3, 5); but the French
soon impressed upon all their sculpture, whether of stat-
ues, reliefs or grotesques, the stamp of their own orig-
inal genius (Fig. 272; Plate XIV, 7). Both in tech-
nical execution and in appropriateness to its architec-
tural setting, these later Romanesque sculptures mark
the opening of a new chapter in decorative art.
Painted Decoration.
The scanty remains of the painted decoration in
263


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
French Romanesque churches indicate a prevailing sim-
plicity, marked by effective composition with rather
crude coloring and execution. The painted ornament
was generally restricted to certain well-defined portions
of the edifice, such as the apse and chapels. Wall sur-
faces were marked with conventional masonry joints or
simple quarries, spangles or diapers in red ochre and
black; sometimes the effect was varied by painted wall-
arcades and representations of wall-draperies with con-
ventional folds. Columns were striped or painted with
chevrons or zigzags in red, dark green and yellow or
gold, and the capitals were enriched in the same colors.
Figure painting was rare; when employed it was
strongly Byzantine in character, like the contemporary
manuscript pictures, as at St. Ceneri, or Ste. Rade-
gonde, Poitiers. Leaf-forms were sometimes used for
borders and narrow bands.
Accessory Arts.
In iron-work, tiles and wood-carving the French mo-
nastic artists executed works of considerable merit, em-
ploying generally forms akin to the architectural orna-
ment or else inspired from Byzantine models; but they
f«>. 273. Leaf Pattern, there was a flourishing school of
Tile, St. Omeb. workers in enamel by the cham-

by no means equaled the variety
and richness of the Italian deco-
rators. Figure 263 shows a
door knocker of the 12th cen-
tury, from a cast in the Troca-
dero museum. At Limoges
264


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
plevé process. In this work, as in the other minor arts,
the Byzantine influence is prominent. Fig. 273 is a
characteristic leaf-detail from the red-and-brown tiling
in the cathedral of St. Omer. The tile floors of chan-
cels and chapels of the late Romanesque period were
often of great elegance, in simple and effective patterns
in buff, red, brown and black.
Books Recommended:
As before, Hubsch. Also: Baum: Romanesque Architecture
in France (London, 1912).—Cahiek and Martin: Mélange»
d'archéologie (Paris, 1868).—Cattaneo: L'Architecture en
Italie (Venice, 1890).—Courajod: Leçons professées, etc.
(Paris, 1903).—Cummings: A History of Architecture in Italy
(Boston, 1901).—De Dabtein: Etudes sur Varchitecture
lombarde (Paris, 1882).—Dehio and Bezold: Die Kirchliche
Baukwnst des Abendlandes (Stuttgart, 1887-1901).—F. M.
Hessemer: Arabische und alt-italienische Bauverzierwngen
(Berlin, 1842).—Lecoy de la Marche: Les manuscrits et la
miniature (Paris, 1886).—E. Molinier: L'Orfèvrerie civile et
religieuse du Ve à la fin du Xesiècle (Paris, 1899).—Musée de
sculpture comparée du Trocadéro (Paris, no date).—F. Osten:
Bauwerke in der Lombardei (Frankfort, n. d.).—H. RÉvon.:
Architecture romane du Midi de la France (Paris, 1867).—
Rohault de Fleury: Les Monuments de Pise (Paris, 1866).—
E. E. ViOLLET-LE-Duc: Dictionnaire raisonné de Varchitecture
française, etc. (Paris, 1868).
365


CHAPTER XV
ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
II. Anglo-Norman, German, Spanish and
Scandinavian
Anglo-Norman Ornament.
Previous to the Norman conquest of England in
1066, the architecture of that country was of the crudest
description, and, the ornament of the style, the so-called
Saxon, was so rude and scanty as hardly to deserve men-
tion. With the incoming of the new and foreign ele-
ment, however, there hegan a remarkable development,
both architectural and decorative; and, as is so often the
case, the result of the blending was in some respects
more brilliant than even the stronger of the parent styles.
While the Norman (more properly "Anglo-Norman")
architecture derived its chief inspiration from French
Norman models, it rapidly diverged from them into a
strongly national style in which carved decoration was
very liberally employed. This Anglo-Norman orna-
ment is remarkable for its vigor, variety and effective-
ness. Its fundamental elements were comparatively
few, and chiefly of French origin, but it was more
abundant and varied in its details and applications.
Norman Columns.
The bases, of the Attic type, have spur-leaves some-
times but not always; the shafts are usually plain, but
266


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
sometimes carved with zigzags, spiral flutings, or large
quarry-patterns (as at Durham). The capitals are
rarely of the Corinthianesque type (Fig. 274; Plate
XV, 5), except in late instances under French influence.
The prevailing type is the cubic or cushion type (Fig.
275); next the foliated or Corinthianesque, and the least
frequent are the grotesque capitals. Sometimes two

Fio. 274. Capital
from Lincoln
Cathedral.
Fio. 275. Capital from St. Peter's,
Northampton.
types are combined side by side, as in Plate XV, 1. The
abacus is heavy, molded, sometimes carved with saw-
teeth, zigzags or other ornaments. The scalloped
cushion type is also very common (Plate XV, 3). Cor-
bels are either plain or grotesque.
Doorways, Arches and Moldings.
The doorways are often extremely rich, especially
after 1130. The zigzag is the ornament most fre-
quently used; it is carved on each of several arch-steps
and sometimes carried down the jambs in lieu of nook-
267


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 276. Ornaments from
Ifflby Church.
shafts, as at Iffley.
Zigzags on the face and
soffit of an arch are ar-
rayed to produce al-
ternate pyramids and
lozenge-shaped holes; al-
ternate zigzags are con-
vex and concave in
section. Saw-teeth, star-
flavers, pyramid-jewels,
moldings (Fig. 276).
Round jewels or "nail-
heads" are applied in hollow moldings, and rosettes
or flowers are not uncommon. Another characteristic
ornament is the beak-head,—a grotesque bird's head with
enormous beak, applied
to the voussoirs of an
arch, the beak pointed in-
wards, and sometimes inp
spanning several mold- yj/i
ings (Fig. 277). Gro- |i
tesques occur in arch or-
naments, but rarely. The'
billet-molding also oc-
curs occasionally, but usu-
ally with round billets in-
stead of square.
The effect of the
crowded ornament of the
Anglo-Norman doorways
is often extremely rich,

Fio.
277. Beak-head Molding,
Iffley Church.
268


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
the multiplied points of light on projecting details show-
ing brilliantly against the dark shadows. Famous ex-
amples of such doorways are those of Iffley Church,
Barfreston Church and the Prior's Door of Ely Cathe-
dral, and many others.
Arcatures are of frequent occurrence, usually with in-
terlaced arches. These are found sometimes even on
the exterior, though more usually employed for interior
walls (Fig. 278).
Other Carved Ornament.
Free figure sculpture is almost unknown, but figures
in relief are sometimes seen, and grotesques, both human
and animal are very frequent. Foli-
age is rare, and when it occurs is
highly conventional and very simple.
The anthemion motive is not uncom-
mon (Fig. 279); it is obviously of
Byzantine derivation by way of the
French Romanesque. Interlace is oc-
casionally met with, probably due to
■* XV X'IU. SID. IflXU-
Celtic influence. laced Arches.
Painted ornament appears to have been occasionally
used in the chancels and wooden roofs of churches, but
extant examples are very rare. That of the east end of
St. Cross Church, near Winchester, discovered late in the
last century and restored, shows simple conventional pat-
terns in red ocher and black. The ceiling of Peterboro'
reproduces the painted lozenge-pattern of the original
which it replaces. That of Ely is also a modern decora-
tion based on Norman precedents.

269


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Fonts; Metalwork.
A few "Saxon" or pre-Norman fonts have been pre-
served, all of crude
workmanship, the
more elaborate
among them suggest-
ing an effort to copy
Byzantine details.
The Norman fonts
are of better work-
manship, cut in stone
or cast in lead, usu-
ally in the form of
a square or round
bowl on a short shaft
(or several shafts)
and base, and quite
frequently adorned
with figure subjects,
poorly executed. The Byzantine influence is often evi-
dent in the Norman fonts, some of which resemble

Fig. 280. Celtic Mss. Initials.

Fio. 279. Carved Anglo-Norman An-
THeMIONS: FROM St. SaVIOR'S, SoUTH-
wark (above); Hereford Cathedral (be-
270


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
Venetian-Byzantine well-
curbs. Metal work does not
appear to have been carried
to an advanced degree of
perfection in this period.
The celebrated bronze can-
dlestick of Gloucester Ca-
thedral is evidently of for-
eign, probably of Italian,-
workmanship. It is of an
alloy of bronze and silver.
(But see below.)

'mm
f. ♦ <4

Fio. 282. Cover or Shrine for St.
Patrick's Bell.
Fio. 281. Celtic Interlaces.
Celtic Ornament.
The artists in the
Irish monasteries de-
veloped a remarkable
skill in certain depart-
ments of decorative
art, notably and fore-
most, in manuscript il-
lumination; almost to
an equal degree in
ecclesiastical metal-
work. Interlace of
an extraordinary in-
tricacy is a character-
istic of their art in
both fields. In this
they display a close
kinship of spirit with
271


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Scandinavian art, in which the representation of the
Great Tree Yggdrasil, whose branches cover Earth,
Heaven and the Underworld, are interlaced with the
convolutions of the serpent or dragon Nithhoggr.
Whether these interlaces originated in the North or were
developed from Byzantine interlace it is difficult to de-
cide. Fig. 280 illustrates various forms of Celtic inter-
lace initials; Fig. 281 shows carved interlaces and the
curious spiral ornament called
the "trumpet pattern." Fig.
282 is the famous shrine or cover
of the iron bell of St. Patrick,
decorated with jewels and inter-
laced filigree of flat silver wires;
while Fig. 283 shows one quar-
ter of the cumdach or case made
for the Molaise Gospels, of sil-
ver on bronze with jewels and
Fro. 283. quar™ the grotesque symbolic lion of
op Cover of Molaise St. Mark. This is dated about
1020. The bell shrine is later.
The Celtic crosses serving as grave stones—particu-
larly the so-called "high crosses" present the best ex-
amples of Irish stone-carving. The cross-arms are con-
nected by a circle, and the angles between them cut into
by curved notches; the flat faces and often the sides of
the stone are covered with patterns (rarely with figures
as at Monasterboice) in low relief; the patterns show the
characteristic interlaces, often very complex and elabo-
rate. Such a cross is shown in Plate XV, 16.

272


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
German Romanesque Ornament.
In Germany, as in France and England, architectural
decoration may be said to have its real beginning in the
eleventh century, the earlier works being crude and al-
most bare of ornament. The architectural awakening
began in Saxony, but its most brilliant and prolific

Fio. 284. Capitals from Gernrode.
achievements were in the Rhine provinces, where a truly
splendid style of church architecture grew up in the
llth-13th centuries, in which the ornament is remark-
able for its admirable propriety and its force and rich-
ness of design. It would be hard to find better capitals
in any of the medieval styles than those of these Rhenish
minsters, and the carving of grotesques fully equaled
that in any other country. The decorative forms are
all of foreign origin, French, Lombard and Byzan-
tine, but combined with remarkable skill and wealth
of fancy. The medium of transmission of these vari-
273


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
church-front of almost pure Italian or Lombard design.
The arts of metal were practised with skill. Both
wrought-iron and cast bronze were employed for grilles,
gates, hanging lamps or crown-lights and for candela-

Fio. 286. Portal from Heilsbronn.
bra and church vessels. Gold, silver and enamel were
also employed for richer and finer products (of which
an early example, perhaps of real Byzantine manufac-
ture, at Aachen was illustrated in Fig. 238). Manu-
script illumination reached a high pitch of development
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and stained glass
in the thirteenth; the former following purely Byzan-
tine models, the latter retaining its Romanesque charac-
ter in the face of the growing Gothic influence. In all
275


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
these arts Germany was influenced both from the West
and the East, France, Italy and Byzantium contributing
to the final result. Examples of some of these various
phases of German art are illustrated in Plate XVI.
Spanish Romanesque Ornament.
The Spanish peninsula was the field of successive in-
vasions, conquests and internal struggles through the

Fio. 287. Tarragoxa. Fio. 288. Tabkagona (?).
entire Middle Ages, and there was little chance for the
development of any independent national style. The
few great churches erected in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries show a dominant French influence (Zamorra,
Avila, Tarragona, Salamanca, Barcelona, Compo-
stella); and while the composition is vigorous and effec-
tive and the ornament well disposed, it presents no strik-
ing novelty of detail (Figs. 287 and 288 illustrate two
276


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
capitals which are thoroughly German in style). A re-
markable characteristic of this style is its absolute free-
dom from Moorish details or influence, although the
eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed the culmination
pa


Fia. 289. Norwegian Carving:
Left Side, from Stedye Church;
Right Side, Unidentified.
Fio. 290. Choir Seat,
Norwegian.
of that brilliant art. This exemption was doubtless due
to the hostility between the Christians and Moslems.
Scandinavian Ornament.
The decorative art of the north of Europe, in the
Scandinavian peninsula especially, took on a special
character, the precise origin and relations of which to
Byzantine art on the one hand and to Celtic art on the
other, are still subjects of controversy. As in Celtic
ornament, elaborate and complicated interlace is the
dominant characteristic; and as in the Celtic manu-
277


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fig. 291. Details of Candelabrum,
scripts, the interlace
is based largely on
the convolutions of a
dragon or serpent,
Nithhoggr, with the
branches of the great
earth-covering. tree
Yggdrasil. The most
characteristic exam-
ples of this art are in
the wood-carvings of
doors and doorways
of ancient churches,
some dating from the
eleventh or even the
tenth century (Fig.
289). As these are
of later date than
many masterpieces of
Irish manuscript or-
nament, some of which
belong to the eighth
and possibly to the
seventh century, it
seems likely that this
Scandinavian art is,
in part at least, rooted
in Irish art, though
Milan Cathedral.
this doubtless derived its first inspiration from Constan-
tinople and Byzantine church fittings, ivories and Gos-
pels. Fig. 290 shows a Norwegian chair (or rather stall
278


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
from a choir) of perhaps the twelfth century, in which
the character of the earlier art still appears.
Romanesque Metal Work.
It is difficult to assign precise national limits to some
of the phases of metal work of the Romanesque period,

Fig. 292. Detail, Chandelier at Hildesheim.
especially in the line of ecclesiastical gold and silver and
silver-gilt copper. Some of this work found in Western
churches was undoubtedly from the Constantinople
workshops—e.g., the famous Pala d'Oro or jeweled
golden altarpiece of St. Mark's, Venice. The Byzan-
tines taught the art to the artisans of Italy, France and
Germany, and Figs. 291-293 illustrate some of the
most famous examples of this work. Fig. 291 shows
two details of the magnificent bronze candlestick in
Milan Cathedral. A very similar candlestick, at least
as to its base, is among the treasures of Reims Cathedral.
Fig. 292 is from a bronze candlestick at Hildesheim.
The fine chalice in Fig. 293 is a part of the treasure of
a church at Bergen (Norway), and illustrates the use of
279


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
filigree with jewels, which was a characteristic Byzan-
tine form of the goldsmith's art. A very similar chalice
is, or was, in the treasury of Reims Cathedral.

Fig. 293. Gold Cup, Beroen.
The architectural styles, thus grouped under the gen-
eral name of Romanesque, gradually passed over into
what are called the Gothic styles. The transition was
not sudden, but the change though gradual, was a real
one: not alone a change of details or of structural prin-
ciples, but of spirit and character. The Gothic styles
280


ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT
expressed the new order which came in with the final
establishment of settled institutions, religious, political
and social, throughout all Western Christendom.
Books Recommended:
As before, Dehio and Bezold, Hubsch. Also, Bond: In-
troduction to English Church Architecture (London, 1918);
Cathedrals of England and Wales (London, 1912).—Dahl-
erup, Holm and Stork: Tegnvnger af aeldre Nordisk Architek-
tur (Stockholm).—Forster: Denkmaler deutscher Baukunst
(Leipzig, 1855-69).—J. T. Gilbert: Facsimiles of National
Manuscripts of Ireland (Dublin, 1871).—A. Hartel: Archi-
tectural Details and Ornaments of Church Buildings, etc. (New
York, 1904).—Hasak: Die romanische und die gotische Bau-
kunst (Stuttgart, 1899).—T. Kutschmann: Romanesque
Architecture and Ornament in Germany (Text in German;
New York, 1906).—C. Mollinger: Die deutsch-romanische
Architektur (Leipzig, 1891).—H. Otte: Geschichte der
romanischen Baukunst in Deutschland (Leipzig, 1874).—T.
Rickman: An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles, etc. (Lon-
don, 1817).—E. Sharpe: Churches of the Nene Valley; Orna-
ments of the Transitional Period; The Seven Periods of Eng-
lish Architecture (London, various dates).—E. Sullivan:
The Book of Kells (New York, 1914).—W. R. Ttmms: The
History, Theory and Practice of Illuminating (London, 1861).
For Spanish Romanesque, consult the fine work of Lamperez
y Romea, Historia de la arquitectura cristiana espanola, etc.,
also the incomplete series entitled Monumentos Arquitectonicos
de Espafia, to be found in a few of the larger libraries.
281


CHAPTER XVI
GOTHIC ornament: structural
Gothic architecture was the result of the development
which took place in the effort to solve the problem of
constructing a vaulted cruciform church of stone, with
a clearstory to light the central aisle or nave. All the
special forms and details of this architecture are more
or less directly incidental to this development: vault-
ribbing, buttresses and pinnacles, clustered shafts,
pointed arches, moldings and tracery, were all evolved
in this process of working out the above problem. The
greater part of the ornament of the medieval churches,
chapels and even secular buildings, consisted of the
adornment of these structural features. Whatever dec-
oration was not structural, either in function or origin,
was symbolic or pictorial. The sculpture and the stained
glass of the great cathedrals constituted an illustrated
Bible which even the most illiterate could in a measure
understand.
This style-development took place first of all in
France. Other countries borrowed from France both
the general composition and the details of their Gothic
architecture* England alone among them retained a
large measure of independence, developing her own
Gothic style freely along national lines from germs
282


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
brought over from France, grafting upon the foreign
plant their own original additions. Germany copied
French models much more closely in some cases, while
manifesting in others an originality verging on caprice.
Spain and Portugal borrowed from all three, though
mostly from France; Belgium was hardly more than a
province of France in her architecture; while the Italians
developed no truly Gothic style, but grafted Gothic
decorative details, much altered, on structures in which
the Gothic principles, both of construction and compo-
sition, were wholly ignored.
Periods.
It is convenient to divide the history of the style in
all the above countries except Italy into three periods—
those of development, culmination and decline, or Early,

Fio. 294. Gothic Capitals: a, Early French, from the Sainte
Chapelle; 6, 14th Century Cap from Transept of Notre Dame;
c, Flamboyant, from North Spire of Chartres.
Developed, and Florid. These correspond to the so-
called Early French, Rayonnant and Flamboyant
phases of Gothic architecture in France, and the Lancet,
Decorated and Perpendicular in England; these names
being derived from the form and tracery of the windows.
283


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
In the English styles these phases belong roughly to the
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, respect-
ively: in France they appear from twenty to fifty years
earlier: in Germany somewhat later. The ornament of
the Early Period (in France 1160 to 1240 or 1250) is
the simplest and most vigorous, the imitation of natural
forms least literal. In the Developed Period design
and execution are finer, ornament more profuse and
more naturalistic, and window tracery (and in England
vault-ribbing also) became more important elements in
the decorative scheme. In the Florid Period the styles
diverge considerably in the different countries, but in all,
the ornament is more complex and often overloaded, and
also often more thin, wiry and dry, technical cleverness
and minute detail taking the
place of restraint and vigor
of artistic design. The orna-
ment oscillates between the
extremes of realism and con-
ventionalism. This sequence
is illustrated in the three
capitals of Fig. 294.
Structural Ornament.
Every important struc-
tural feature was either made
ornamental in itself, like the
clustered shafts, capitals, tri-
forium-arcades, window-tra-
ceries, roof-balustrades and
water-spouts; or adorned
with carved adjuncts and de-

Fio. 295. Decorative Gable
over a Window, Cologne.
284


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
tails, like the crockets, finials,
gablets and tabernacles of pin-
nacles and buttresses, or the foli-
age and flowers on enriched mold-
ings (See Plate XVII). In the
Developed and Florid Periods,
by the operation of a never-fail-
ing law of decorative evolution,
certain forms and features orig- ;([!
inally structural came to be used !f5
as pure ornament. Thus gables,!!;
originally used only at the ends
of gabled roofs, came to be used j ;J
as purely decorative features,
adorned with surface or open-
work tracery, over doors and win-
dows where no such roofs existed
(Fig. 295); in England the vault-
ribs, serving in earlier buildings
as a framework upon which to
build the fillings, became finally Fig. 296. Clustered
a mere patterning in relief on Gothic Pieb.
the vault-surface; in Germany the spire, at first a steep
roof over a bell tower, became a gigantic ornament of
open tracery and not a roof at all.1
Piers, Shafts and Columns.
Except in some of the earlier French and later Bel-
gian and Dutch churches, all the piers were clustered,
i See pages 134, 135, and 137 note for other examples of this law of devel-
opment, and comments upon it.


285


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
slender shafts being grouped around a central core,
sometimes joined to it, sometimes quite separate.
These shafts were usually circular, but sometimes pear-
shaped, springing from bases at a common level, except
in the later examples and carrying elaborate foliated
capitals (Fig. 296). Sometimes, in England espe-

Fio. 297. Romanesque and Gothic Capitals; a, from Bayeux Cathedral,
6, from St. Martin des Champs, Paris.
cially, the shafts are belted at intervals with molded
bands. Vaulting shafts are often sprung from carved
corbels high up, instead of bases on the ground, or set
on the caps of the main piers. Gothic shafts are never
carved, but are sometimes painted.
Capitals display a a great variety of designs, usually
employing foliage as their chief adornment. The earlier
French capitals generally recall the Corinthian type by
their bell-shaped core, square abacus with the corners
cut off, and volute-like corner crockets, but the abacus is
always massive in proportion to the cap and shaft, and
the development of the type from the Romanesque is
286


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
evident (Fig. 297). Later capitals have the foliage
more complex and more naturalistic in detail (Fig. 294
6); the abacus is octagonal or round; in England the
plain molded bell-capital without foliage occurs fre-
quently, and the Corinthian type is lost in the convex
wreaths or bunches of foliage in the foliated caps. In
the Florid Period capitals are often omitted, and when
i mm
ulfil P

Fio. 298. Gothic Bases: Early Type, fbom
Halberstadt; Late Type, fbom Rouen.
used are often poor in design; they vary between extreme
naturalism and capricious convention (Figure 294c).
Bases show a very interesting progressive develop-
ment. The simple Attic type of the Romanesque styles
survives for a while but first loses its corner spurs, then
changes gradually, the plinth taking on a constantly in-
creasing importance until it becomes a high pedestal,
with the moldings above it much reduced and simplified.
The lower torus also becomes higher and larger, assum-
ing the later phases an ogee or pear-like profile.
The corners of the plinth were cut off in many Roman-
esque bases; in the Gothic the plinth (i.e., each member
of a complex base) is almost always frankly an octagon
287


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
or semi-octagon in plan (Fig. 298). In the later period
of the style it is often in two stages, constituting a
pedestal rather than a simple base.
Moldings.
The simple roll molding of the Romanesque styles is
replaced by increasingly complex profiles, in which pear-
shaped sections frequently alternate with deep hollows,
producing effective contrasts of multiplied narrow lines
of light and shadow. In the first two periods the pro-

Fio. 299. French Pier-Arch Moldings of Three Periods.
files are sharp and vigorous, and in the pier-arches the
grouping of rounds and hollows conforms more or less
closely to the stepped profile of the arch-construction.
In the Florid Period the steppings of the arch-section
generally disappear in a generally splayed effect. The
profiles in this period are less vigorous than in the pre-
ceding, the hollows being broad and shallow, the convex
moldings smaller, and fine fillets are multiplied, giving
at times a thin and wiry appearance to the grouped pro-
files (Fig. 299).
Enriched moldings are more frequent in English than
in French work, though they occur in all the periods in
France (especially in late work), England, Germany
288


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL

Cornice-Molding,
Notre Dame, Paris.
and Spain. Convex moldings are rarely enriched, but
the hollows between them are adorned with leaves,
crockets, ball-flowers, and
in early English work with
pyramid-flowers or "dog-
tooth" ornaments. In place
of a cornice or corbel-table,
the wall (especially in
France) was often crowned
with a high, deep cavetto
filled with standing leaves (Fig. 300). In the Florid
Period, the French sometimes filled the broad hollows
between the finer members of a molding-group with ex-
quisitely carved naturalistic vines. This treatment oc-
curs in English examples (e.g. the portals of Southwell
Chapter House) in the Decorated Period. In the fol-
lowing (Perpendicular) Period in England the hollows
were more often enriched with
widely spaced square rosettes.
In both France and Ger-
many moldings of different
profiles were made to cross and
intersect in work of the latest
phase of the Gothic, the intri-
cate cutting of their intersec-
tions giving occasion for that
display of technical cleverness
which characterizes that period.
Vaulting.
Gothic vaulting is based upon the principle of a
framework of ribs supporting the fillings of masonry of

Fio. 301.
Boss:
Carved Vault
French.
289


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
small stones. The rib framework is simple in the early
work of all countries, the only ornament being the mold-
ings of the ribs and sometimes a carved keystone or boss
at their intersections (Figure 301). In France this
simplicity persists nearly to the end (Fig. 302). In

Fio. 302. Vaulting, Apsidal Chapel, Beauvais.
England the ribs were multiplied by the addition of tier-
cerons (Figure 303) and of subordinate connecting ribs
or Hemes, and combined into highly ornamental pat-
terns ("star" and "net" vaults), with carved bosses at
each intersection. This patterning developed finally
into "fan vaulting," in which the ribs were purely decora-
tive moldings cut in the stones of the inverted semi-
conoids of the vaulting (Figure 804, b; a sump-
tuously ornate form of stone ceiling, but without that
290



Exeter Cathedral .

Lincoln Cathedral; half of Tower Vault
Fig. 303





GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
clear expression of structure which marked the earlier
vaulting.
In Germany and Spain the vault-ribs were, as early
as the latter part of the Developed Period, built to fit
predetermined conventional patterns, in which the lines
were not always, as they always were in England, true
plane curves. The builders in these two countries de-
lighted in tours-de-force, displays of cleverness in creat-
ing and solving difficult problems of vault-rib construc-
tion; but the results are neither so rich nor so pleasing
as in England.
Window Tracery.
This was one of the most decorative and characteris-
tic features of Gothic architecture. Its development
may be followed from the Romanesque coupling of win-
dows under a discharging arch through successive stages

in which the separating
pier became a column or
a slender chamfered or
molded pier of cut stone,
while the spandrel above
was perforated with a cir-
cle; then treated like a
thick plate of stone with
decoratively cusped or
foiled openings cut
Fig. 305 a. Plate Tracery, Ettoit through it (plate tracery
Chdbch" Fig. 305 a). Then the
window was further divided into three, four, or more
lights by slender molded or shafted mullions, and
293


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
the space between their pointed-arched heads and the
main window-arch filled with circles or geometric pat-
terns of stone work, the interest of the design being now
transferred from the shapes of the openings to the shapes
of the stone work (bar tracery. Fig. 305 b). Towards
the end of the middle Period the circular arcs and circles
of this type of tracery (which was carried to the highest
perfection in the great East and West windows of Eng-

Fio. 305 6. Bar Tracery, Meopham Church; e, Perpendicular
Tracery, Northfleet.
land and the great wheel-windows of France) reverse
curves were introduced, giving a swaying movement to
the lines. In France this is continued through the next
period, giving it the name of Flamboyant from the
flame-like forms of the very intricate tracery patterns
used both in arched and circular windows. In England
on the contrary there supervened, from about 1375, a
rapid change, leading to the Perpendicular style of
tracery; huge windows being filled with a very mechan-
ical, though structurally excellent, system of vertical
bars, sometimes crossed by transoms on small flattened
294


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
arches (Fig. 305 c). In Germany there was less uni-
formity, but a general resemblance to the French flam-
boyant forms. These various developments are illus-
trated in Fig. 305 and Plate XXI.
Noticeable in all developed Gothic tracery is the intro-
duction of cusps, separating or enclosing foils, also the
branching of the moldings, so arranged that the main
mullions and circles have a section composed of the ag-
gregate of all the subordinate arch—or mullion—mold-

Fio. 306. Vabieties of Cusps.
ings which came together in them. The several com-
ponent groups of moldings are called orders. Cusps
may consist of only the inmost molding widened into a
point, or of a molding or complete order branching off
so as to form a small triangular opening (Fig. 306).
Sometimes one of the outer moldings of the arch of a
door or window was pointed with cusps terminating in
small finials (Plate XVII, 2, shows this treatment ap-
plied to a flying buttress-arch in Germany).
Wall and Gable Tracery.
During the course of the Developed Period the deco-
rative richness of the window-tracery led to the repeti-
tion of like forms on certain wall-surfaces, upon which
they formed ornamental panels framed in the lines of the
295


GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
circles, triangles and quadrilaterals with closed or open
cusps predominating. Such balustrades are used at the
lower edges of roofs as well as for balconies, tower-para-
pets and (rarely) stairways (Fig. 307, Plate XVII,
14, 17) • They became as complex as other features in
the Florid Period (Fig. 308) especially in Germany,
where they often formed veritable geometric puzzles.
Pinnacles, Crockets and Pinials.
These are as characteristic of the Gothic styles as is
the tracery. The buttresses—both the clearstory wall-
buttresses and the outer buttresses external to the fiide-
aisles—were commonly terminated by a tall slender
pyramid, square or octagonal in plan, rising from gab-
lets crowning two or four faces of the buttress-top, or
from minor pinnacles at the corners (Plate XVII, 1, 2,
5). These pinnacles were adorned along the hips or
edges with crochets (Plate XVII, 4)—outward-curl-
ing leaf-like or flame-like protuberances richly carved;
—and terminated in a finial, composed usually of a cen-
tral stem ending in a ball or bud and branching out be-
low this into four or more crockets, forming a remark-
ably effective terminal flower or ornament (Plate
XVII, 6,11).
Crockets (Fig. 295) are also used to fret the salient
edges of the saddleback copings of gables; along the
hips of spires; as ornaments to the outer drip-moldings
of arches, especially in the Florid Period; and (rarely)
between the clustered shafts in doorways and triforiums.
Finials, of like character with those on pinnacles, are the
usual termination of the summits of gables, and of ogee-
297


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
arches in late Gothic design (Plate XVIII, 5). In
early work the crockets, alike those of the finials and of
gable-edges or spire-angles, invariably curl outwards,

a b
Fig. 309. Cbockets: a, Eably French; b, Flamboyant.
like the curled-up volutes of fern in the Spring (Fig.
309 a). Later they took on more elaborate foliage-
forms with complex, wavy outlines, often in the last
period of the style losing all decision and character in
their mass and detail (Fig. 309 b).
Crestings of
stone, of cast-lead,
of terra-cotta were
employed to deco-
rate the ridges of
most of the roofs, on
which the covering
Fio. 310. Gothic Cresting. Was UsUally of lead,
copper or slate. They were customarily of rather sim-
ple design, ending against finials of metal of a more
elaborate sort (Fig. 310).
Tabernacles.
Not strictly structural in themselves, these were em-

298








GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL
bellishments of structural features or parts, chiefly of
buttresses and of the jambs of deep doorways. They
consist of a niche or recessed arch to hold a statue, a
corbel to support it, and a decorative gable or canopy
over it, the canopy often running up into an elaborate
spire. The decorative function of the whole was that
of breaking up the bare mass of a vertical strip or but-
tress, or of a wall, or of the doorway jambs with a
deep shadow and the brilliant lights of the statue, and
to emphasize the vertical movement of the lines of the
whole composition. The canopy was made increasingly
elaborate as the style progressed, and in late examples
was composed of a bewildering intricacy of minute
arches, pinnacles and traceries, the whole forming an
extraordinarily rich decoration (Figure 311).
Corbels were of frequent occurrence in all the Gothic
styles, as supports for statues, for vaulting-ribs, for
vaulting-shafts and for columns; they were not used, as
in Romanesque buildings, to support a cornice or corbel-
table. They were almost invariably carved with foliage,
after the general fashion of the capitals, though some-
times in England made very long vertically (e.g. Lich-
field Nave). Grotesque heads and human figures ap-
pear in the third period; they are rare in the two pre-
ceding. A late French corbel and crocket are shown in
Plate XVIII, 13, 14.
Gargoyles.
Gothic eaves-spouts and those also which projected
from the buttresses were invariably carved into the sem-
blance of long-necked, vomiting monsters, called gar-
soi


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
goyles (Plate XVII, 1). Remarkable skill was dis-
played in the composition and anatomy of these gro-
tesque monsters. They are among the most striking
examples of the decorative-symbolic treatment of purely
utilitarian members (Figure 312).
Books Recommended:
As before, Bond, Dehio and Bezold, Hartel, Violi,et-
le-Duc. Also, G. L. Adams: Recueil de sculptures gothiques
(Paris, 1856).—Baudot: La Sculpture francaise au
moyen-age et a la renaissance (Paris, 1884).—Enlart:
Manuel d'archeologie francaise (Paris, 1902).—A. L. Froth-
ingham: A History of Architecture, vol. iii, iv (New York,
1915).—L. Gonse: L'Art gothique (Paris, n. d.).—Hasak:
Die romanische und die gotische Baukunst; Der Kirchen-
bau; Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues (Stuttgart, 1903).—A.
Hauser: Stillehre der architektonischen Formen des Mit-
telalters (Vienna, 1899).—K. A. Heideloff: Ornamentih
des Mittelalters (Nuremberg, 1838-55).—T. G. Jackson:
Gothic Architecture (London, 1915).—Klingenberg: Die
ornamentale Baukunst, etc. (Leipzig, n. d.).—C. Martin:
L'Art gothique en France (Paris, 1915).—C. Moore: De-
velopment and Character of Gothic Architecture (New York,
1899).—Nesfield: Specimens of Mediaeval Architecture (Lon-
don, 1862).—Pakker: Introduction to Gothic Architecture;
Glossary of Terms in Gothic Architecture; Companion to
Glossary (London, 1861-66).—A. N. W. Pugin: Glossary of
Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume (London, 1868).—M.
Schmidt: Meisterwerke der dekorativen Sculptur, XI—XVI
Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1894—95. This is a German edition
of the work listed after Chapter XIV under the title Musee de
Sculpture Comparee du Trocadero).—E. Schmuzer: Gothische
Ornamente (Berlin, 1892).—G. G. Ungewitter (tr. by Mon-
icke): Gothic Model Book (London, 1862); Sammlung mit-
telalterlicher Ornamentik (Leipzig, 1866).
302


CHAPTER XVII
GOTHIC CAEVING AND INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
Decorative Carving and Sculpture: Foliage.
The tradition of the classic acanthus and of its By-
zantine modifications, clearly evident in all Romanesque
carved foliage, gradually disappeared in Gothic art. In
the second half of the 12th century the French carvers
began to turn for inspiration and suggestion to the com-
mon vegetation about them, and developed an entirely
new category of foliage-forms. This change was due
to the formation of guilds of free or non-monastic ma-
sons and carvers who traveled from one site to another
to ply their art, untrammeled by the monastic traditions.
They were the counterpart in France of the maestri
comacini of Italy, and their appearance was synchro-
nous with the cathedral-building movement in France,
to which was chiefly due the impulse toward progress
and innovation which produced the Gothic style. As
Viollet-le-Duc has pointed out,1 these artists first con-
ventionalized the simple forms of the earliest sprout-
ing Spring herbage, thick and crisp, suggestive of
the new life and energy of Nature. The crocket, de-
scended no doubt from the Corinthian corner-volute,
was carved like a thick flattened shoot bearing a globular
bunch of uncurling leaves (Fig. 809). Like the Cor-
i Article "Sculpture" in "Dictionnaire raisonn*" (toI. Till),
303


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
inthian volute, it was the dominant feature of capi-
tals, as in Fig. 813; see also Plate XVIII, 1, 2, 3.
The other leaves were massive and concave in modeling,
and all the foliage was made to grow out of the capital

Fio. 313. Capital, St. Mabtin-des-Champs,
Pasis.
or other member which bore it (Fig. 314). As the
carver's skill increased, the stiffness of the early conven-
tionalism disappeared, and a beautiful type of foliage
was evolved, still conventional and thoroughly archi-
tectural, but with grace and delicacy of detail, and varied
by a closer study of particular plant-types (Plate
XVIII, 1). This study led to an increasing natural-
ism, to a more and more realistic copying of more com-
304


INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS

Fig. 314. Corner Leaf fbom
Notre Dame, Paris.
first stage of develop-
ment is hardly at all
represented. The
crocket from Wells
Cathedral (Fig. 317)
is an exception in its
resemblance to early-
French models. The
early English capitals,
crockets and corbels of
the 13th century show
instead an extraordi-
narily beautiful han-
dling of minute curl-
plex and more mature leaf-
types from shrubs and trees,
and these were wreathed
about the architecture in-
stead of seeming to grow out
of it (Figs. 294 b and 315).
By the end of the 14th cen-
tury this tendency was being
carried to extremes, though
with remarkable technical
beauty of execution, and
thereafter the design oscil-
lates between dry conven-
tionalism and excessively
minute realism (Figs. 294 c
and 316). In England the

Fig. 315.
French Rayoxnaxt Capital.
305


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fio. 316. Capitals, Chapter House of
Southwell Cathedral.
ing trefoils, often highly intricate and of marvelous ex-
ecution (Fig. 318). The naturalistic stage is seen in
innumerable late thirteenth and early fourteenth cen-
tury churches, in which, as in France, the flowers and
foliage are applied to the architecture
in wreaths and bunches, as in the re-
markable doorways of Southwell
chapter-house (dr. 1294; Fig. 315).
Foliage is scanty in Perpendicular
work, and the mechanical form of the
Tudor rose (Fig. 319) is the most
characteristic floral adornment. In
Crocket, Germany there is no systematic de-
velopment of foliage design, though
there is much very beautiful foliage; it is, however, in
great measure copied or imitated from French models.

Fio. 317.
Wells Cathedral.
306


INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
Figure Sculpture.
Figure sculpture applied to the decoration of build-
ings had become almost a lost art during the Dark Ages,

Fio. 318. Capital, Salisbury Cathedral.
and the monastic builders of the eleventh century and the
first half of the twelfth had only partially and sporadi-
cally renewed it. We have already seen, however, that
in occasional instances the French sculptors had dis-
played great skill in such works as the porches of St.
Trophime and St. Gilles at Aries
(Plate XIV), and the west portal
of Chartres (Figure 260), and the
widespread use of grotesques had
developed both technical and artis-
tic ability in the use of the chisel.
In the cathedral and church arch-
itecture of the Gothic period—1160
to 1500—and particularly during

Fig. 319. Tudor Flower.
807


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the free develop-
ment of art which succeeded the monastic period brought
into being an entirely new phase of decorative figure-
sculpture. The French cathedrals were people's
churches quite as truly as bishops' churches, and their
builders made them into picture-Bibles in stone. The
portals were especially rich in plastic representations of
saints and angels, kings, prophets and martyrs, and the
figures were modeled with
fine regard for their archi-
tectural setting. The deep
jambs and the central door-
pier were adorned with
standing figures, often of
heroic size, sometimes of
great beauty. The great
tympana over the doorways
bore reliefs of Christ or the
Virgin enthroned amid
scenes of life of the Virgin,
of the Last Judgment or equally solemn subjects (Fig-
ure 321). The cavernous arches were studded with con-
centric ranks of throned and adoring angels. An arcade
high up on the facade was filled with figures of crowned
kings of France or of Judea (Fig. 320), while from tab-
ernacles on buttresses and rood-screens and transept-
fronts angels and saints looked down upon the throngs
below. The earlier sculpture is the most architectural
in character: as the thirteenth century advanced the
treatment was more realistic, with more of positive
beauty of pose and feature (Figure 322) reaching its

Fig. 320. Part of "Gallery of
Kings," Amiens Cathedral.
308



Via. 322.—Reliefs from Portal op Notre Dame
Fra. 323.—Tomb op Abbot Stephen op Aubagine


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
ency toward minute ornamentation grew, through the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and as such minute
decoration was better adapted for works of less monu-
mental scale than for the churches themselves, these
minor works became more and more the characteristic
masterpieces of the stone-carver's art. The intricacy of
the canopy-work with its bewildering network of arches,
cusps and pinnacles is only equaled by the perfection and
delicacy of the execution. Verbal descriptions can give
little idea of the marvelous detail of some of these works,
and even the illustrations fail to convey a complete im-
pression to which the works themselves give rise. The
most beautiful of these works are generally the French,
though the Germans at times press them closely (see
Figure 339), and some even of the French works, as
the rood-screens at Bourg-en-Bresse and Alby, are at-
tributed to German artists (Figure 325).
Wood-Carving.
Choir-stalls offered a specially rich field for the wood-
carver's chisel. Each seat was provided with a high
back usually terminating in a projecting canopy, which
in turn was finished
with gablets, pin-
nacles and a high and
complex spire. The
arms separating the
seats were richly
carved, and the
F,oT 326. A M,serere, Beverley hinged seat, when
Cathedral. folded back, dis-

312





INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
closed a grotesque cor-
bel, called the "mise-
rere" (Fig. 326). In
the later Gothic the
choir stalls were extra-
ordinarily elaborate.
Other specimens of
wood carving are found
in the pew-ends of Eng-
lish churches, with
elaborate finials (Fig.
327); in the bosses and
hammer beams of Eng-
lish wooden ceilings
(see Fig. 374); in
chests and furniture for
the sacristy, and in the
details of half-timbered
houses in England,
France and Germany;
as well as in domestic
furniture (chests, ta-
bles and chairs), espe-
cially of the 15th and
16th centuries. The
details are all derived
from the contemporary
stone architecture and
carving, though modi-
fied to suit the material.

Fig. 327. Pew End, Winthobpe
Church.
315


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Metal Work.
Iron was costly in the Middle Ages, and, except for
clamps and chainages, and in Italy for tie-rods in the
vaulting, was rarely
used for primary
construction. Its
chief uses were for
nails and bolts, for
hinges and door-fit-
tings, for gates and
grilles, and for locks,
latches, keys, armor
and arms. Cast-iron
was rarely employed,
although a late
Gothic example is
shown in Plate
XVIII, 17. The
medieval wrought
iron, especially of
France, Italy,' Ger-
many and Flanders, shows marvelous skill in forging,
decorative effects being produced by splitting, twisting,
welding and riveting the bars by scroll-work, rosettes,
and repousse or hammered work in sheet metal (Fig.
828; Figures 329, 330).
Lead was used for crestings and for covering spires
and dormers. Bronze, brass, copper and silver were
handled with skill in the movable furnishings of the
church, candelabra, pyxes, monstrances, chalices, cro-
ziers, pastoral staves and the like. Enamel and jewels

Fio. 328. Crestino of Iron Grille, St.
Sebkin, Toulouse.
316





INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
were employed to heighten the richness of these objects.
The goldsmith's and silversmith's art derived most of its
origins from Byzantine art, but departed rapidly from
it and developed a style wholly Western and Gothic.
Textile Ornament.
The remains of medieval embroideries, laces and tap-
estries are not abundant. There was little richness of
dress or textile furnishings except in ecclesiastical dress
and among the few who were rich and powerful in
Church and State, and to a remarkable extent the ec-
clesiastical robes and embroideries have disappeared,
though they were undoubtedly often of great beauty
and even magnificence. Those preserved to this day
are mostly of the fifteenth century, except a respectable
number of Spanish and Sicilian embroideries and silk
damasks of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries which
show a strongly Oriental inspiration.
Tiles.
Fine pottery was an almost unknown art in western
Europe in the Middle Ages except among the Moham-
medans of Spain and Sicily. Ceramic tiles were, how-
ever, used in floors, especially about the altar in France,

Fig. 331. French Tile Pattebns.
319








INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
both for the color scheme and the details, but with much
freer handling and frequent use* of foliage and of free
abstract design in flourishes, scrolls and interlaces.
Gold was used with fine effect though sparingly. The
name of Jean Fouquet stands conspicuous in the bril-
liant French school of the late fifteenth century. The
most notable production of the Flemish school was the
Grimani Breviary, now in Venice; but every consid-
erable collection of manuscripts possesses beautiful ex-
amples of the various schools in breviaries, books of
hours, psalm-books, chant-books and secular works—
chronicles, histories and editions of the classics. Fig.

Fig. 333. A French Medallion Window.
323


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
332 illustrates a few details of this brilliant and fascinat-
ing phase of medieval design; other examples are shown
in Plate XX.
Stained Glass.
Of all the arts allied to Gothic architecture, that of
the stained glass win-
dows is the most char-
acteristic as a special
product of the style.
From timid begin-
nings in the Roman-
esque buildings 1 it de-
veloped rapidly as the
size and splendor of
the traceried windows
increased. The depth
and brilliancy of color
attained by the glass-
makers of the thir-
teenth century pro-
vided a new decorative
resource for the
church-builders and
window-designers; a
richness and intensity
of blues, reds, yellows
and greens rivaling
the splendor of mo-
saic. The mechani-
i The Germans claim an active production of mosaic glass as early as
1000 a.d. at Tegernsee (Meyer, "Ornamentale Formenlehre").

Fig.
336. German Grisaille. Above,
from Cologne; below, from
Altenbubo.
S24,


INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS
cal imperfections of the early glass made it only the
more sparkling, while the heavy leading employed
gave a suitable foil to the glowing colors by its black
lines which tended to harmonize as well as separate oth-
erwise crude juxtapositions of color.
The early windows were arranged in medallions, each
containing a picture in mosaic, as it were, made up of
small units of color
separated by the
lines of the leading
(Fig. 837). The
spandrels between
the medallions were
filled with quarry-
work or foliage in
grisaille (lines of a
semi-opaque brown
pigment fused onto
-flif» o-lncc of a nnm PlO- 337. Leading op an Early French
me glass at a com WlND0WS The marriage at Cana.
paratively low tem-
perature). A border of leaves or other conventional
units framed the whole. A few such windows have
come down from the 12th century (the earliest stained
glass extant is at St. Denis, said to be of 1108), and they
continued to be used through the greater part of the thir-
teenth century. "Jesse-tree" windows and medallion
windows entirely composed of foliage, conventional or-
nament and grisaille were also common through this
century (Fig. 335). The invention of the yellow stain
(stannic oxide) led then to the making of "canopy" win-
dows, with large figures standing under elaborate trac-

825








INDUSTRIAL, AND ACCESSORY ARTS
clasm of the Puritans and the havoc of Wyatt in the
early nineteenth century have left but scanty remains
of the old glass. Canterbury and York possess fine
glass and there are a few good pieces still left in Salis-
bury Cathedral. Very late examples are to be seen in
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and in St. Jacques
at Liege. The best German glass is in the Cathedrals
of Cologne, Altenburg and Strassburg (Fig. 336).
Figs. 337 and 338 illustrate the leading of the early
glass,—a most important element in the decorative effect
of the window.
With the later years of the fifteenth century the
Gothic style approached its extinction by the rapidly-
spreading art of the Renaissance. But while it had
reached the final limit of structural development, and
architecture was sensibly declining, the arts of ornament
were still at the highest point of richness and of technical
perfection (Figures 339,340). This splendor of minute
decoration, of complex tracery, realistic pictorial sculp-
ture, sumptuous embroidery and showy furniture was,
however, the final coruscation of an expiring flame.
The decorative details of the style long resisted the in-
vasion of the Renaissance style from Italy, in France,
England, Germany and Spain. But the new style was
more than a fashion; it was but one symptom of a funda-
mental change of spirit of the artistic point of view, of
civilization and ideals, and by the middle of the six-
teenth century Gothic art had passed away.
329


CHAPTER XVIII
PAETICULAE SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
I. French and English
In the general discussion of Gothic ornament in the
last two chapters, while the chief attention was given to
the developments in France, many references were made
to the diverging practice of the English, German and
Spanish schools. This chapter and the following will
be devoted to a more detailed treatment of the several
national styles or sub-styles of Gothic decorative art.
French Gothic Ornament.
The Gothic style in France may be considered as
lasting from the beginning of Notre Dame at Paris in
1163, to the accession of Francis I in 1515. It is cus-
tomary to divide this period into three divisions or
periods, the Early French, from 1163 to 1250 or there-
about; the Rayonnant, 1250 to 1375, and the Flam-
boyant, 1375 to 1515. These are somewhat arbitrary
divisions, as the progress from one stage and phase of
development to another, whether in window-tracey, carv-
ing or stained glass, was continuous and gradual.
Through all this development French Gothic ornament
was marked by certain characteristics which distinguish
it from the English and other national styles.
331





SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
finials, vaulting-bosses and the
like (Fig. 347). Surface-
carving is seldom employed.
The rinceau survives in early
work in occasional pilaster-like
vertical bands and horizontal
lintels (Fig. 348), but passes
out of use very early in the
thirteenth century.
Figure Sculpture.

Fig. 348. Carved Vertical Rinceau,
Notre Dame, Paris.

Fic. 347. Boss from Vault
of Sainte Chapelle.
The free figure-
sculpture of the great
portals of cathedrals
has already been al-
luded to (page 307).
The throned angels in
the portal arches, the
standing figures of
apostles, martyrs and
saints in the deep
jambs (Figure 352),
the reliefs on the pedes-
tal courses of the jambs
(Fig. 349) constitute
a combination of
deeply significant and
artistically appropri-
ate sculpture never
elsewhere equaled, be-
fore or since (see
387


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

ante, page 308 and Figure 323; also Figs. 320, 349).
Grotesques often mingle effectively with carved
foliage, as in Figure 350 from Chartres Cathedral.
Very striking and nobly decorative also are the
colossal angels standing in the pinnacled tabernacles
surmounting the but-
tresses of Reims Cathe-
dral.
The culmination of
minute realism, alike in
statues and reliefs,
came in the fifteenth
and early sixteenth
centuries, in choir-en-
closures like those in
Amiens Cathedral
(Figure 351) and
Chartres, and in choir-
screens and tombs, as
in the famous examples in the Brou church at Bourg-
en-Bresse. In no other country did figure-sculpture
play so important a part in the decorative system.
Equally appropriate and decorative with these archi-
tectural sculptures was the minor decorative figure-
work in wood and ivory, as evidenced, for example, in
the beautiful ivory triptych from the Municipal Library
of Amiens, of which Figure 353 illustrates the central
panel.
Tracery.
In the Early French period the tracery was at first
Fio. 349. Reliefs from Base of
Postal, Notre Dame.
338



Fig. 352.—Two Figures from
Portal, Amiens Cathedral
Fig. 353.—Ivory Triptych, in Amiens Library
French, XVth Century








SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
to affect the design of window-tracery, by the substitu-
tion of flowing and waving lines for the simpler geo-
metric combinations of circles, pointed arches and cusps
which had hitherto satisfied all requirements for over a
century. The "ogee" arch was substituted for the arch
formed by simple circular arcs, and the flame-like forms
which result from dividing a circle through the center
by a wave-line, became almost the dominant motive in
the tracery-design. The resulting style of design,
though less logical structurally than the earlier geo-
metric types of tracery, was more flexible and capable
of a greater variety of combinations. It dominated the
entire architecture of France from 1375 to 1515, and
covered the exteriors of churches with an extraordinary
wealth of traceries, both of openwork and of blind or
wall-tracery (Figures 340, 356, 357; Figs. 358, 359).
It was especially effective in the rose windows, as in
the front of St. Ouen, Rouen, the fronts of Rouen
Cathedral, the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, Tours, Amiens,
and Reims Cathedrals, and the transepts of Beauvais.
In several cases these Flamboyant roses were inserted
in earlier facades (Amiens, Sainte Chapelle). The
front of Rouen Cathedral, long unfinished, but com-
pleted within recent years, is the most elaborate and
splendid example of this Flamboyant design; next to
it stands the exquisite little church of St. Maclou at
Rouen; while the north spire of Chartres Cathedral,
and the charming little church at Louviers (Figure 359),
are others among many examples of the marvelous rich-
ness and delicacy of which the style was capable.
The origin of this change in tracery design is gen-
345


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
erally now ascribed to English influence. A considerable
part of northern France was in English hands in the four-
teenth century, and (as will be later shown) the English
had before the middle of that century developed their
"flowing" or "curvilinear" tracery. While they soon ex-
changed this for the more rigid "Perpendicular" tracery,
the French developed the suggestion of the wavy line to
its utmost possible results of decorative splendor.
Stained Glass.
The development of the art of stained glass was so
closely associated with the progress of Gothic architec-
ture that Fergusson, in his "History of Architecture,"
claims it as the one exclusively distinguishing feature of
the Gothic style, which might properly be called "the
stained glass style." The Romanesque churches, with
their thick walls and small windows, offered little scope
or suggestion for pictured windows. The Gothic style,
with its concentrated supports and gradual reduction of
wall areas, developed a progressive increase in the size
and loftiness of its windows, and this progress stimu-
lated the art of pictured and decorative glass by giving
it greater opportunities. Indeed, the larger the win-
dow, the more necessary became colored glass to reduce
the excessive glare; while the more splendid the glass
and the deeper and richer its tone, the greater was the
tendency to enlarge the windows. The structural
progress of the French Gothic style was thus closely
associated with the progress of window decoration by
colored glass. While the French led in this, as in so
many other branches of decorative art, and while more
346






Fig. 359.—Flamboyant Tracery, Church of St. Pierre, Louviers


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
and it is likely that not a few were painted blue with
gilt stars. From vestiges of the original painting dis-
covered in the Sainte Chapelle at Paris a complete in-
terior decoration in color was carried out in that chapel
about 1860. The result is gorgeous, but the opaque
colors of the brilliantly painted walls suffer under the
glare of transmitted color through the windows, and this

b
Fig. 360. Early English Carving, a, from Church at Stone, Kent;
6, Lincoln Cathedral; c, Ely Cathedral.
probably explains why interior coloration was not more
general after the 12th century. The essays in color-
decoration by Viollet-le-Duc in the chapels of Notre
Dame are far less brilliant, but also less interesting.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the French
handling of decorative detail of all kinds was in general
more logical, more strictly architectural, than in other
countries, with the possible exception of England. Ele-
gance and propriety of design are combined in an
eminent degree in nearly all French Gothic ornament.
350





SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT

Fig. 363. Decorated
Capital: Beverley
Cathedral.
English Gothic Ornament.
The English work of the first two periods, as com-
pared with the French, shows a general predominance
of decorative over structural £
conceptions, but without sacri-
fice of structural propriety. It
displays less of severe logic, but
often more of charm; less vigor,
but often greater delicacy and
richness. English cathedral in-
teriors, while far less lofty and
majestic than the French, are
generally more ornate, richer in the play of light and
shade, often more beautiful. All the details are on a
smaller scale, and re-
markable effects are
produced by mul-
tiplied repetition.
The moldings are
finer and more num-
erous, the shaft-clus-
terings more com-
plex, the carved orna-
ment more varied
and abundant (Plate
XX, 1-; Figures
362, 363,364). On
the other hand, the
exteriors were far
less ornate than the
French; the figure-

Mill
Fig. 364. a, Finial, Wells Chapter
House, b, Crocket, Beverley.
S5S


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT

Fig. 368 A. "Curvilinear" Panels in Wood.
richly adorned with figures in niches, as at Exeter and
Canterbury. Very rich in fig-
ure-sculpture were also some
of the great 15th-century
reredoses of English cathed-
rals, as those of Winchester,
St. Saviour's at Southwark
(cathedral), and some others.
Mention has already been
made in Chapter XVII of the
"Angel Choir" of Lincoln, il-
lustrated as to its sculptured
triforium-spandrels in Fig-
ure 362.
Woodwork of all sorts the
English excelled in, especially
in the 14th and 15th centuries. Fro. 369. "Poppy Head."

857


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT

Fw. 370. Plate Tracery, Lil-
LINOTON, NoRTHaNTS.
The wooden choir-screens,
choir-stalls, pew-ends, font-
covers and the like, were
often of great beauty (see
ante, Fig. 327), with elabo-
rate surface-tracery, can-
opy-work, and carved gro-
tesques. Very character-
istic are the "poppy-head"
finials to the pew-ends.
Fig. 368 illustrates part of a carved wooden screen, of
which there are many in English parish churches; Fig.
368a, 14th-century surface-paneling in wood; Fig.
369 a poppy-head finial. But the greatest glory in the
later woodworkers was the oaken ceilings of halls and
churches; these will be discussed later.
Moldings were generally richer, more minute and
more varied than the French,
more subtile in profile, and
more often enriched, as al-
ready explained Fig. 365).
The English composed their
groups of Gothic moldings
so as to produce successions
of deep undercut hollows
contrasting with boldly pro-
jecting roll-moldings or bow-
tels. There was continuous
increase in richness and com-
plexity until 1350, after
which there is observable a

Fig. 371. East Window,
Raunds, Northants.
358


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
falling-off in vigor and effectiveness: the hollows are
flatter and broader, the rolls and bowtels less vigorous
in their contrast with the hollows. The bowtel—a roll-
molding with a slightly salient lip or fillet, giving it an
almost pear-shaped section—is peculiar to English archi-

Fio. 372. Flowing or "Curvilinear" Tracery; a, Ithlingboro',
NORTHaNTS; b, OVeR, CaMBRIDGeSHIRe; C, LlTTLe AddINOTON,
NORTHaNTS.
tecture. Another noticeable English feature is the
label or drip-molding over the pier-arches in church in-
teriors, as well as over exterior arches, doors and win-
dows; the French confined this feature wholly to ex-
teriors. The English never affected the intricate inter-
secting moldings of late French and German Gothic
art.
359


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
long pendants (retro-choir of Peterboro; cloisters of
Gloucester; King's College Chapel, Henry VII's chapel
at Westminster, etc.). The decorative splendor of the

Fig. 374 A. Open-Timber Ceiling, Lavexham Church, Suffolk.
English vaulting is of the highest order, and nothing
equal to these vaults is found in any other school of
Gothic design (Figure 30 6).
No less remarkable are the superb oaken ceilings
borne on huge arched trusses, of which the highest de-
velopment is the hammer-beam type as illustrated in the
363


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
Books Recommended:
As before, Dehio and Bezold, Fbothingham, Moose,
Parkeh, Simpson. Also for English Gothic, Architectural
Association Sketch Book (London).—Atkinson and Atkin-
son: Gothic Ornaments selected from various Cathedrals and
Churches in England (London, 1829).—F. Bond: Gothic
Architecture in England; Cathedrals of England and Wales;
Wood Carvings in English Churches; Fonts and Font Covers;
Screens and Galleries in English Churches; Westminster Ab-
bey; Introduction to English Church Architecture (Oxford and
London, 1905—1913).—Brandon: Analysis of Gothic Archi-
tecture (London, 1849); Open Timber Roofs of the Middle
Ages (London, 1849).—T. T. Bury: Remains of Ecclesiastical
Woodwork (London, 1847).—J. K. Colling : English Mediaval
Foliage; Details of Gothic Architecture; Gothic Ornaments
(London, 1848-1856).—E. A. Freeman: An Essay on the
Origin and Development of Window Tracery in England (Lon-
don, n. d.).—C. Moore: The Mediaxal Church Architecture of
England (New York, 1912).—Paley: A Manual of Gothic
Mouldings (London, 1845).—T. Rickman: An Attempt to Dis-
criminate the Styles (London, 1817).—E. Sharpe: Mouldings
of the Six Periods; Treatise on the Rise and Progress of Win-
dow Tracery in England (London, 1871).—Spring Gardens
Association Sketch Book (London).—Consult also monographs
on particular churches and cathedrals.
S65


CHAPTER XIX
PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
II. German, Spanish, Italian
German Gothic Ornament.
Cleverness of technical execution and a tendency
towards displays of skill rather than purity of design
mark the German Gothic work. There is much borrow-
ing from French models and Cologne, the greatest of all
Gothic cathedrals, is clearly modeled after Amiens and
Beauvais. Most of the German Gothic details of the
first two periods are based on French types. In the
naturalistic rendering of the leaves of the oak, maple,
vine, etc., the German cleverness of technic found free
scope, and in the 14th century began to show independ-
ence of French models. There is abundant use of the
grotesque, in which a very Germanic broad humor often
takes the place of the French artistic refinement.
The moldings generally resemble the French. In the
Florid period intricate intersections of moldings of dif-
ferent profiles seem to have given special delight to the
German stone-cutters and wood-carvers because of the
technical difficulty of their execution (Figures 339,1
375, 381).
i It is difficult to distinguish between some of the French, German and
Flemish work of the late Gothic period. The Strassburg pulpit may be
either a French or a German work.
366



Fig. 383.—Vaulting, Cathedral of Salamanca











SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
burg, etc. In principle German glass is like the French,
but with much more of grisaille, foliage and geometric
patterning, and less of figures until the 15th century,
when a pictorial style came in
with much painting in place of
mosaic or pot-metal coloring, and
a very frequent use of figure-sub-
jects.
In the minor arts—wood-carv-
ing, metal-work, etc.—the Ger-
mans produced much that is in-
teresting, generally marked by
the same qualities of fantastic ca-
price, quaint humor and technical
excellence, to which attention has
already been called in other de-
partments of art (Figs. 380, 381;
Figure 382).
Spanish Gothic Ornament.
Medieval Christian art in Spain
was subject to diverse influences,
which prevented a homogeneous
organic development of style, but
helped to impart to it a highly
picturesque character. The con-
temporary Moorish art stimulated the tendency towards
surface ornamentation, while German, French and even
English characteristics occur in not a few cases. The
Spanish fondness for unrestrained exuberance of orna-
ment overrode the structural logic of Gothic design and

Fio. 381. German Late
Gothic Cabvino.
378


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
produced, in the fifteenth century especially, composi-
tions of extraordinary and fantastic richness (Figure
384).
Spanish Gothic ornament is especially rich about the
doorways of churches and in the arcades of cloisters and
patios of the 14th and 15th centuries. Tabernacle work,
tracery and cusping of great complexity, and heraldic
escutcheons form the chief resources of such decoration
as is not directly inspired from foreign models.
The traceried
spires of Burgos
suggest German
work; the general
decorative details of
the facade suggest
both Amiens and
Ratisbon. The in-
Fio. 386. Mudejar Decoration. terior decoration of
this and other churches is hard to classify or formulate, it
is so varied and so capricious in character, though almost
always effective (Figure 385). Vault decoration fol-
lowed in Spain no well-defined principle, but in its use of
multiple ribs resembles the German rather than the Eng-
lish Gothic. The rib-patterns though often designed as
abstract decorations rather than as a structural frame-
work (Figure 383), are nevertheless always true ribs,
not mere moldings carved out of the masonry as in Eng-
lish fan-vaulting. An occasional admixture of Moor-
ish details with the Gothic (Fig. 386) produces what is
called the Mudejar style.
Window tracery is of less importance in Spain than

374



Fig. 384.—Patio (Court) of Palace op the Infantado, Guadalajara

Fig. 385.—Interior of Chapel of the Condestabile, Burgos Cathedral


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
in more northern countries because of the small size of
windows required in a hot climate; on the other hand,
tracery as a surface decoration is carried to the extreme
of elaborate complexity.
A striking characteristic frequently met with in Span-
ish decorative work is the effective way in which the
most fanciful and overwrought ornamentation is brought
into close contrast with the most severely plain surfaces,
and minute detail with grandeur of scale.
Italian Gothic Ornament: the System.
The principles of design that dominated the Gothic
styles of western Europe never found acceptance in
Italy. The structural logic of the French and Eng-
lish builders and their system of ribbed vaulting, isolated
supports and external buttresses were foreign to Italian
traditions and ideals. The opportunist methods of the
Italian Romanesque builders and the persistent tradi-
tions of Roman design, with its pilasters, round arches,
cornices and acanthus leaves, were more in accord with
Italian taste. When the intercourse between French,
German and Italian chapters of the Benedictine and
Cistercian orders began to make the splendid church
architecture of the West known to the Italians, the re-
sult was only a very inadequate attempt to add some of
the superficial details of that architecture to buildings
constructed after the traditional Romanesque fashion.
Pointed arches, steep gables, pinnacles, finials and
crockets, and tracery strangely modified or travestied,
were applied to buildings wholly Italian in design, with-
out reference to the principles underlying the design and
377


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
use of these details in the West (Figure 387). Each
building was conceived of as a walled enclosure—some-
times vaulted, sometimes roofed with wood—upon which
to spread decoration, not as an organic structure to be
made decorative in itself. The form and outline of a
church facade had no necessary relation to the form of

Fio. 389. Detail from Portal or Cathedral, Lucca: Carved Rijtceau
and Marble Inlay.
the church behind it; it was a screen, a surface to be
ornamented like a frontispiece (Figure 388). The
flanks might or might not be similarly adorned. The
interior provided areas for mural paintings. The ma-
terials for exterior decoration were round and pointed
windows, gables, pinnacles, pilaster-strips, panels, sta-
tues, colored marble, inlays, mosaic, anything that would
produce patterns in light and shade, form and color
(Plate XXII). The facades of Sienna Cathedral
(1284) and Orvieto (1310), and the flanks and east end
878


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
of the Duomo at Florence (1357-1408) illustrate this
conception of the relations of architecture and ornament.
The superb campanile at Florence (1334-50) by Giotto,
Gaddi and Talenti, is its most perfect embodiment in
the admirable harmony of the ornament with the struc-

Fig. S90. Capital from a Tomb in Sta. Chiara, Naples.
tural lines and mass (Plate XXII). Polychromy
rather than light and shade was the chosen medium of
decoration; the use of Gothic forms was a concession to
fashion which prevented a truly rational development of
style. In the works just mentioned and countless
others, black, red, green, yellow and white marbles, in
panels, stripes and inlays, are mingled with pseudo-
Gothic and half-classic details. The Roman tradition
refused to die (Fig. 389), and Corinthian capitals
(Fig. 390), the Attic base, round arches with archivolts,
acanthus leaves, rinceaux and moldings of Roman pro-
379


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
file, are used with no sense of their incongruity with
pointed arches, twisted shafts, crockets and tracery.
Architectural Details.
All the Gothic forms are capriciously varied. The
most notable single feature is the spirally twisted shaft,

Fio. 391. Tomb in San Antonio, Padua.
frequently used as a mullion in subdivided openings, and
as a jamb-shaft in recessed doorways. It is clearly a
survival from Romanesque practice (Fig. 391; Plate
XXII, 5, 6). Mosaic and inlay the Italians could
never give up, and as their Gothic decoration was pre-
eminently a decoration of surfaces, inlaid bands and
panels of colored marbles in geometric patterns appear
perfectly in place alongside of Gothic pinnacles and trac-
ery (Figure 394). The tracery was rarely—except in
Venice and in a few churches built by foreign artists—
designed as a structure to be built up in stone after the
true Gothic fashion; it was rather a surface of stone to be
380





SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
perforated and carved, as in the Duomo windows and
the Or San Michele at Florence (Figure 895). In
Venice, however a remarkable and more truly structural
type of tracery was de-
veloped in the 14th cen-
tury in secular build-
ings; first in the majes-
tic arcades of the Doge's
Palace, and then in pri-
vate palace facades, in a
style singularly vigorous
and original (Fig. 396).
The triforium tracery of
San Martino (cathe-
dral) at Lucca (1370),
has much of the Western character. That of Milan
cathedral (1386—) is presumably of German design.
Minor Works.
In these the Italian decorative genius found its most
congenial expression. Tombs, altars, chapels, shrines,
ciboria, choir-stalls, fountains and pavements afforded
free scope for Italian fancy and love of color. In these
inlay and mosaic, Cosmati-work (see ante page 200) and
surface decoration were perfectly appropriate. The al-
tar of the church of Or San Michele, Florence, by
Orcagna (Figure 397); the tombs of the Scaligers in
Verona (Figure 392); wall-tombs and canopy-tombs in
Venice and elsewhere, are not surpassed by works of like
purpose anywhere.

383


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Decorative Fainting.
The remarkable schools of painting which arose and
flourished in Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries and in Sienna in the fourteenth, fall outside the
field of a history of ornament, except as to the sub-
ordinate details of their mural decorations. The cul-
mination of this school is seen in the frescoes of Giotto
(1267-1337), especially in the church of S. Francesco
at Assisi, and of his followers, the Gaddi, etc. The
decorations of vault-ribs and of borders of pictured
panels on walls and vaults show a mingling of classic
survivals with geometric details
evidently inspired from Cosmati
work and geometric inlays (Fig.
398). The persistence of classic
rinceaux and acanthus leaves ap-
pears often like a foretaste or an-
ticipation of the Renaissance, in-
stead of a lingering reminiscence
of traditions never quite lost since
the days of the Roman Empire.
Carvings like those on the Man-
dorla door of the Florentine
Duomo (cir. 1399; Fig. 399) are
evidences of the vitality of those
traditions, which the foreign Gothic
fashion could not wholly drive out.
Other painted decorations, as in S.
Anastasia, Verona and S. Andrea,
Vercilli, and the cloisters of the

Fig. 399. Detail from
THe MaNDORLA DOOB.
Florence Cathedral.
884


Fia. 395.—Carved Traceby, Ob San Michele, Florence

Fig. 398.—Detail, Painted Wall and Vault, Santa Croce, Florence


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
Spanish Chapel of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, are
of a more distinctly Gothic character. The upper
chapel of Sta. Maria in the Palazzo Pubblico at Sienna
is another noted example.
Wood and Metal.
Choir-stalls and furniture offered abundant oppor-
tunity for the decorative skill of the Italian wood-carv-
ers, who often combined wood-inlay or intarsia with
their carving. But so many of these medieval wood-
carvings were removed to be replaced in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries with the works of the Renaissance


Fig. 401. Capitals, Doge's Palace, Venice.
387


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
artists, that this phase of Italian medieval art is less im-
pressive than some others. A single example is shown
in Figure 400 from Molfetta; it shows a curious survival
of earlier tradition in the almost Romanesque aspect of
the animal reliefs. There are a number of fine medieval
iron grilles in Italian churches, and the grilles surround-
ing the tombs of the Scaligers (Figure 392) are elegant
examples of this form of art.
The foregoing paragraphs have sketched only in the
barest outline the Gothic ornament of Italy. The whole
country is a vast museum of decorative art of all periods,
—for its people, from the days of ancient Rome to our
own, have always been decorators first of all, and an
encyclopaedic volume would be required to treat ade-
quately the history of their achievements in the decora-
tive arts.
Conclusion.
With the closing years of the fourteenth century in
Italy, and a century later in western and northern Eu-
rope, the Gothic style began to be extinguished by the
rapidly-developing and widely-spreading art of the
Renaissance. Architecture had already reached the
final limit of its structural development under the Gothic
system, and was sensibly declining in power and
grandeur. But, as we have seen, a splendid decorative
flowering accompanied this decline in structural origi-
nality, and reached its highest level of richness and tech-
nical perfection in the fifteenth century, in France, Eng-
land, Germany and Spain. This splendor of minute
decoration, of complex tracery, realistic pictorial sculp-
388




Fig. 396.—Detail, Altar in Ob San Fig. 399.—Detail from Stalls,
Michele, Florence Molfetta Cathedral


SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT
ture, sumptuous embroidery and showy furniture was,
however, the final coruscation of an,expiring flame. In
Italy, meanwhile, the new flame of the Renaissance had
been kindled and had been growing in brilliancy and
spreading as it grew brighter. The Western arts long
resisted the Italian invasion; they refused to kindle from
this new flame, to copy the new fashion. But the new
style was more than a fashion; it was the expression of a
fundamental change of spirit, of a new artistic point of
view and attitude, of a new civilization and new ideals.
The old order was passing away, and by the middle of
the sixteenth century Gothic art was dead.
Books Recommended:
As before, Adamy, Dehio and Bezold, Hasak, Frothing-
ham, Ungewitter. Also, for the German Gothic, Boisseree:
Histoire et description de la cathedrale de Cologne (Munich,
1842).—Foerster, Denkmale deutscher Baukunst (Leipzig,
1855-69).—Hartel: Architektonische Details and Ornament
der Kirchlichen Baukunst (Berlin, 1891).—Rlingenbebg: Die
ornamentale Baukunst (Leipzig, n. d.).—E. ausm Werth:
Kunstdenkmaler der christlichen Mittelalters in den Rheinlan-
den (Leipzig, 1858).—For the Spanish Gothic, Lamperez y
Romea: Historia de la arquitectura cristiana Espanola, etc.
(Madrid, 1908-09).—Monumentos Arquitectonicos de Espana
(Madrid).—D. Robebts: Sketches m Spain (London,
1837).—Smith: Sketches m Spain (London, 1883).—G. E.
Street: Gothic Architecture in Spain (New Ed., London,
1913).—Waring: Architectural Studies in Burgos (London,
1852).—Waring and Mac4uoid: Examples of Architectural
Art in Italy and Spain (London).
For the Italian Gothic, Cummings: A History of Architec-
ture in Italy (Boston, 1901).—Gbuneb: Terra-Cotta Archi-
tecture of North Italy (London, 1867).—King: Study Book
of Mediaeval Art (London, 1868).—Nesfield: Specimens of
391


A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT
Mediaeval Architecture (London, 1862).—Schultz: Denkmaler
der Kunst des Mittelalters m Unteritalien (Dresden, n. d.).—
G. E. Street: Brick and Marble Architecture in the Middle
Ages in N. Italy (London, 1874).—Waring: The Arts Con-
nected with Architecture in Central Italy (London, 1858).
393


LIST OF PLATES


I. Savage Ornament: Polynesian
1. Carved Window-Head, New Zealand (after Pho. in A. M.
N. H.).
2. Detail, New Zealand Paddle-Handle (after O. J.).
3. Detail, New Zealand Canoe (after Racinet).
4, 5. Hawaiian Stamped Cloth (after O. J.).
6. Detail, New Zealand Paddle-Handle (after O. J.).
7. Tattooed Mummy-Head, New Zealand (after O. J.).
8. Samoan Grass Cloth, String Decoration (A. M. N. H.).
9. New Zealand Grass Cloth (A. M. N. H.).
10. New Zealand Club (Racinet).
11. Scratched Pattern on a Tongan Club, New Guinea (after
A. C. H.).
12. Hawaiian Stamped Cloth (after O. J.).
13. New Zealand Club (after Glazier).
14-. From a New Guinea Spatula (after A. C. H.).
15. Detail, Handle of New Zealand Paddle of 21; Faces and
Figures.
16. New Zealand Club (A. M. N. H.).
17. Frigate-Bird Ornament, New Guinea (after A. C. H.).
18. Frigate-Bird Scrolls. New Guinea (after A. C. H.).
19. Samoan Fan (A. M. N. H.).
20. New Zealand Stamped Cloth (after O. j".).
21. Blade of New Zealand Ceremonial Paddle (after O. J.).
22. Scratched Ornament on Pipe, New Guinea (after A. C. H.).
23. Carving from New Zealand Canoe (Racinet).
24. Painted Eaves Boards, New Zealand (after Pho. in A. M.
N. H.).


II. Savage Ornament: American
1. Bolivian Cloth.
2. From Temple of Uxmal, Mexico (Racinet).
3. Mexican Terra-Cotta Head.
4. Indian Basketry Patterns.
5. Ancient Mexican Pottery Border.
6. Bolivian Hanging Jar.
7. Sculptured Stele or Pillar, Uxmal.
8. Mexican Jar with Spiral.
0. Mexican Serpent Jar.
10. Neck of Mexican Jar: Pseudo-Antliemions.
11. Mexican Bowl; Spirals and Zigzags.
12. Washoe Basket (after print in Yale Neict).
13. Mexican Duck Jar.
I t. Peruvian Gold Disk.
15. Mexican Platter with Grotesque.
16. Peruvian Platter with Snake Ornaments.
17. Carving from a Mexican "Throwing Stick."
18. Peruvian Cloth, Toucan Pattern.
19. Mexican Pipe-Bowl, Carved Stone.
20. Prow of Alaskan War Canoe.
21. Stern of Alaskan War Canoe.
All the above, except 2 and 12, are original sketches from ob-
jects in the American Museum of Natural History- New York; 19
by Miss G. K. Hamlin; the rest by the author.


III. Egyptian Ornament
1-5. Painted Lotus Borders from Tombs (chiefly after P. d'A.).
6-8. All-Over Patterns from Tomb Ceilings (after P. d'A. and
P. & C).
9. Hathoric Capital and Entablature, Temple of Nectanebo,
Phila? (after P. & C).
10. Column, Campaniform Type.
11. Lotus-Bundle Column, Temple of Thothmes III, Karnak
(after P. & C).
12-14. All-over Patterns from Tomb Ceilings (after Meyer and
P. d'A.).
15. Floral Capital, Ptolemaic, from Phila; (after P. d'A.).
16,18. Circle All-over Patterns (after P. d'A.).
17. Palm Capital, Temple of Edfu (after O. J.).
19. Lobed Lotus Capital from the Theban Oasis (after O. J.).
20. Vulture with Plumes of Royalty; from Ceiling of a Hypo-
style Hall (after P. d'A.).
21,22. Imbri Patterns (after Dolmetsch).
23. Vulture or Hawk in Gold and Enamel (P. & C).
24. Enamel Rosette for Inlay (in Metropolitan Museum).
25. Carved Perfume-Spoon of Wood (Meyer).
26. Scarabeeus or Beetle.


PIate ffIL Egyftcam Ornamkmt


IIIa Egyptian' Ornament
1. Various Lotus and Other Borders from Tombs (chiefly after
Prisse d'Avennes and Dolmetseh).
2. Campaniform Column, from Ramesseum.
3. Lotus-Bud Clustered Column, Luxor.
4. All-Over Patterns Painted in Tombs (after Dolmetseh,
Prisse d'Avennes and Perrot and Chipiez).
5. Ptolemaic Capitals, Hathoric and Floral from Phil* (after
Prisse d'Avennes and Owen Jones).
6. Ptolemaic Capitals, Lotus and Palm, from Theban Oasis and
Edfu (as above).
7. Feathers as Insignia (after Owen Jones).
8,9. Imbrications (Dolmetseh).
10. Floral Ornaments (after C. H. Walker).
11. Furniture, in part from Tomb Paintings (after Meyer).
12. Wooden Shrine (Dolmetseh).
13. Detail from Facade of Tomb (after Perrot and Chipiez).
14. Utensils and Jewelry.
Illustrations not otherwise designated are from original draw-
ings by the author.





V. Greek Ornament, Painted: Chiefly on Pot-
tery
1. Anthemions, Black on Red.
2. Dish, Geometric or Dipylon Period (P. & C).
3, 7. Palmettes, Black and Brown on Red.
4. Framed Anthemions Red on Black.
5. Palmette or Framed Anthemion and "Lotus" Motive: Black
and Brown on Red.
6. Hydria, Early Fifth Century (Art Pour Tous).
8. Oblique Anthemions, Black on Red.
9. Anthemions and Fruits.
10. Double Palmette-and-Lotus Band: Red on Black.
11. Anthemion Pattern, from an Apulian Vase in New York.
12, 13. Vine Bands, Red on Black.
14. Ivy Band, Black on Red.
15, 16. Small Vertical Laurel and Ivy Bands.
17. Painted Terra Cotta Antefix (incorrectly labeled as of Mar-
ble), Athens.
18. Hydria, Fine Period.
19. Painted Marble Antefix.
20. Framed Anthemions, Red on Black.
21. Foliated Scroll or Rinceau, on a Late Apulian Vase.
22. Anthemions, Black on Red.
23. Vertical Vine Band.
The above illustrations are from various sources: Owen Jones,
Kachel, Art Pour Tous, Lau, and original sketches from the object.





VI. Greek Ornament, Painted: Pottery and
Architecture
1, 2, 3. "Vitruvian" Waves and Scrolls.
4, 5, 9, 10. Various Fret or Meander Bands.
6, 11. Anthemions, Red on Black.
7. Imbrications.
8. Flower Band (Lotuses?).
12. Lotus-Bud Band.
13, 14. Plant and Vine Ornaments.
15. Egg-and-Dart and Laurel Band.
16, 18,19, 22. Anthemions and Palmettes, Black on Red.
17,20,21,23,30. Anthemion Bands, Red on Black.
24, 27. Large Anthemion Ornaments, Black on Red.
25, 26. Late Painted Decorations, Apulian.
28,31,36. Pairyted Guilloches on Terra-Cotta Strips and Moldings.
29, 32-35. Polychrome Decorations of Architectural Members.
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 20, 23, 25 are from drawings by the author after
Owen Jones and Kachel; 28, 30, 36 from drawings by the late
Prof. M. K. Kress of Columbia University; 32 is from Perrot and
Chipiez; the rest from the late Prof. W. R. Ware's "Greek Or-
nament."





VII. Gbeek Ornament, Architectural
1. Carved Pediment Rineeau, from one of the "Sidon" Sar-
cophagi at Constantinople.
2. Marble Antefix. supposedly from the Parthenon.
3. Carved Finial of Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens:
Restored.
4. Typical Carved Lotiform Motive, from the Erechtheion.
5. Carved Anthemion on an Ionic Cymatium.
6. Doric Order of the Parthenon.
7. Ionic Capital from the Erechtheion.
8. Moldings from the Erechtheion: Water Leaf, Bead-and-
Reel, and Egg-and-Dart.
0. Ionic Order of the Erechtheion.
10. Capital from Eleusis (after Meyer).
11. Anta-Cap from the Erechtheion (Meyer).
12. Greek Corinthian Volutes.
13, 15. Stele Heads from Athens, Fourth Century.
14. Corinthian Capital from the Choragic Monument of Lysic-
rates: Restored.
All the figures on this Plate are from original drawings by the
author except 8 and 11 which are taken by permission from Meyer's
"Handbook of Ornament"; and 5, from an unidentified source.


VIII. Roman Ornament, the Orders
1. Doric Order, Thermse (Baths) of Diocletian.
2. Composite Order from the Arch of Titus.
3. Ionic Order from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis.
4. Corinthian Order, Temple of Castor and Pollux.
5. Middle Band of Architrave, Temple of Castor and Pollux.
6. Greco-Roman Corinthian Order of Temple of "Vesta" (so-
called) at Tivoli.
7. Composite Capital, Thermae of Caracalla.
8. Unidentified Corinthian Pilaster Capital; Late Greek or
Greco-Roman.
9. Enriched Attic Base in Capitoline Museum (after Meyer).
10. Enriched Corinthian Base in Baptistery of Constantine
(after Meyer).
11. Enriched Corinthian Base from Temple of Concord (Meyer).
All the figures on this Plate are from original drawings by the
author, based on various authorities (7 is after a photograph), ex-
cept 12 which is taken directly from Meyer's "Handbook of Orna-
ment."


Plate VML


IX. Roman Ornament, Carving
1. Taenia Molding, Arch of the Silversmiths.
2, 3. Moldings between Architrave Bands, Temple of Vespasian
(from Photographs of French Restorations).
4. Semicircular Panel in Court of Mattei Palace, Rome, with
Rinceaux and Rosettes; its source is unknown (after
Vulliamy).
5. Detail from Border of a Silver Platter (after Kachel).
6. Rinceau, from Temple of Vespasian.
7. Bucrane, from an Altar (after Tatham).
8. Fragments from Forum of Trajan in Lateran Museum (after
a Photograph).
9,10. Details from so-called "Florentine Tablet" (after Kachel).
11. Enriched Ove, Temple of Vespasian (after an old French
Lithograph).
12. Pilaster Fragment in Villa Medici, Rome (from Cast in Co-
lumbia University).
13. Oak-Leaf and Rosette Band (Unidentified; after an old
French Lithograph).
14. Pilaster Fragment with Double Rinceau, in Palazzo Fano,
Rome.
All the above illustrations are from drawings by the author.
The sources of 6 and 14 cannot be verified.


X. Roman Ornament, Minor Arts
1. Cinerary Urn in British Museum (after Glazier).
2. Silver Crater from Hildesheim (Meyer, after Kachel).
3. Silver Patera from Hildesheim (after Kachel).
4. Marble Hydria from Pompeii (after Photograph).
5. Bronze Saucepan, Naples Museum (Meyer).
6. Cinerary Chest and Urn in Vatican Museum (after Piranesi).
7. Bronze-Tripod in Berlin Museum (after Meyer).
8. Marble Support or Stand in Villa Borghese, Rome (aftev
Piranesi).
!). Bronze Tripod, Naples Museum (after Meyer).
10. Candelabrum on Triangular Pedestal in Vatican Museun
(after Piranesi).
11, 12. Marble Table Legs, Vatican Museum (after Meyer).
13. Bronze Candelabrum Base, Naples Museum (after engrav-
ing in "The Workshop").
All the illustrations on this P'ate are from the author's drawings,
based on the sources indicated.





XI. Pompeiian Ornament
1. Detail from Temple of Isis (R. Paufve after Zahn).
2. From a Painted Wall in Naples Museum (R. Paufve, after
Niecolini).
3. From House of Marcus Lucretius (H. W. Haefele, after
Niecolini).
4. Painted Border (R. Paufve, after Zahn).
5. From House of the Vestals (Author, after Zahn).
6. Frieze in Temple of Isis (Author, after Zahn).
7. Fragment of Stucco Relief from Excavation Near Villa
Farnesina, Rome (Author, after Photograph).
8. From a Wall not now Extant, in Pompeii (H. W. Haefele,
after Niecolini).
9. Detail of Pompeiian Floor Mosaic (R. Paufve, after
Zahn?).
10. Figure in Stucco Relief, from Excavation Near Villa Farne-
sina, Rome (Author, after Photograph).
11,12. Details from Pompeiian Floor Mosaics (H. W. Haefele).





XII. Byzantine Ornament, Carved
1. Capital, Impost, Mosaic and Marble Paneling, Hagia Sophia,
Constantinople.
2. Spandrel with Surface Carving in Marble, Hagia Sophia,
Constantinople.
3. "Basket" Capital and Impost Block, San Vitale, Ravenna.
4. Pier and Cap in Front of St. Mark's, Venice, from St.
John of Acre.
5. Inlaid Capital and Impost Block, St. Mark's- Venice.
6,7. Details from Bronze Doors of the Vlth Century, Hagia
Sophia. Constantinople.
8. Italo-Byzantine Silver Chest in Museo N'azionale- Florence.
0. Puteal (Perforated Parapet), San Vitale, Ravenna.
10. Panel from Crypt of St. Mark's, Venice; Xth Century.
All the above illustrations are from photographs or photo-prints.


XIII. Byzantine Ornament, Mosaic
1. Mosaic Detail, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople.
2. Spandrel and Capital, Gallery Arcade of Hagia Sophia,
Constantinople.
3, 4. Details of Mosaic from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople.
5. Detail of Mosaic in St. George, Salonika.
6,7,8,10. Details of Mosaic from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople.
0,11,14. Mosaic Details from San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, Rome.
12, 13. Details of Floor Mosaic in San Marco, Rome.
Of the above illustrations Nos. I, 2, 6-10 a're from student-
drawings by S. Y. Ohta, after Prang and Salzenberg; 11 and 14
from student-drawings by H. J. Burke; 3, 4, 5 and 6 are repro-
duced by permission from Prang's Plates of Historic Ornament; 12
and IS are from measured drawings by the author.


XIV. Romanesque Ornament, French
1. Double Capital from La Dalbade, Toulouse, in the Toulouse
Museum.
2. Double Capital from Church of Notre Dame at Chalons-
sur-Marne.
3, 5. Details from Central Portal of Church of St. Gilles, near
Aries.
4. Capital from Church of St. Pierre-le-Moutier.
6. Carved Rosette, from Portal of Church at Moissac.
7. Carved Tympanum from a House at Reims.
8. Rosette (unidentified).
9. Detail from Porte Ste. Anne, Cathedral of Notre Dame,
Paris.
10. Fragment of Frieze from Portal of Church of St. Gilles,
near Aries.
11. Carved Monster from Portal of Church at Moissac.
All the illustrations on this Plate are reproduced from photo-
graphic post cards of casts in the Museum of Comparative Sculpture
of the Trocadero, Paris.


RateM Romaneswe Oejmament French.

IDoubk Q^^.1^0ibadeTmk>ux.(kTuioustMuseam) Zdoutte&ptMMRDomcdeCholoia jurMome.

FbrchojSGiHatfrla)
-f (fatal from SRerrek/ioutier. 5 Fbith ofJt.Gilles (Atk&


XV. Anglo-Norman and Celtic Ornament
1. Voluted Capitals from Harmston Church, Lines (after
Bond).
2. Grotesque and Scrolls, Shobdon Church, Herefordshire
(after Rickman).
3. "Scalloped"-Type Capitals, New Shoreham Church (after
Bond).
4. Anglo-Norman Anthemion Ornament (unidentified).
5. Capital, Canterbury Cathedral (after Rickman).
6. Peterboro Choir, Two Bays (illustration by Author in Van
Rensselaer, "English Cathedrals").
7. Zigzag Arch-Ornament from Malmesbury Abbey (after
Parker).
8. Star-Flower on an Arch in Romsey Abbey (after Rickman).
9. Anglo-Norman Cushion Capital (unidentified; C. U. Student'
Drawing).
10. Billet or Checker Molding from Winchester Cathedral
(after Parker).
11. Anthemion Ornament from Hereford Cathedral.
12. Initial P, from Book of Kells (after Sullivan).
IS. Detail from Celtic Cross at Ruthwell, Ireland (after
Champreys).
14. Interlace from Cross at Mugle, Ireland.
15. Interlace Border from an Irish MS. (after Racinet).
16. The South Cross at Aheny, Ireland (after Champreys).
All the above illustrations are from the author's drawings ex-
cept 9, which is an unidentified student's drawing.


XVI. German Romanesque Ornament
1. Carved Pier in Church at St. Jak, Hungary (from a draw-
ing by Stein).
2. Twelfth Century Capital from Cathedral at Nauniburg (C.
U. Student-drawing).
3. Twelfth Century Capital from Gelnhausen (from Hauser-
"Stillehre . . . des Mittelalters").
4. Double Ca])ital, Minster at Limburg-on-the-Lahn (Hauser-
"Stillehre").
5. Detail of Bronze Ornament, Aachen.
6. Rosette from Hciligcnberg near Vienna (Meyer's "Hand-
book" etc.) Gelnhausen.
7. German Romanesque Capital (from an unidentified engrav-
ing)-
8. Twelfth Century Bronze Knocker (Meyer).
!). Rosette from Cathedral of Bale (Meyer).
10. Anthemion Band from Church at Hersfeld, Saxony.
11. Acanthus Molding from Munzenberg, Hesse ("Gewerbe-
halle").
12. Anthemion Band from Fulda, Hesse-Cassel (after Prang).
13. Romanesque Stained Glass from Heiligenkreuz (Hauser,
"Stillehre").
I t. Carved Band from Liebfrauenkirche. Halberstadt (after
"Klingenberg, Mittelalterliehe Ornamentik").
15. Anthemion Frieze from South Germany (after Prang)..
16. Carving from Tomb in St. Thomas', Strassburg.
17. Carved Band from Anhausen-an-dem-Brienz, S. Germany
("Gewerbehalle").
Illustrations not otherwise attributed are from drawings by the
author.


Plate XVSo (Gewmam EtDFmMESQiuiEtemMEMTo


XVII. Gothic Structural Ornament
1. Buttress Pinnacle from Notre Dame (Hauser).
2. Flying Arches, Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg (Hauser).
3. Decorative Gable, Cologne Cathedral; Middle Period Tra-
cery (Hauser).
4. Crocket from St. Urbain, Troves (Hauser).
5. Buttress Pinnacle, Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Student Draw-
ing)-
6. Early French Finial.
7. French Gothic Vault Rib (Hauser).
8. English Pier Arch Moldings (Hauser).
9. Late Gothic Crocket, Rouen (Hauser).
10. Wall Traceries, Transept of Meaux Cathedral (C. U. Stu-
dent Drawing).
11. Finial Cathedral of Troyes (Hauser).
VZ. Half-Plan and Elevation, Clustered Pier, Notre Dame,
Paris (C. U. Student Drawing).
13. Pier Cap and Arch Moldings, Chartres Cathedral (Hauser).
11. Early Gothic or Transitional Balustrade (C. U. Student
Drawing).
15. Detail from Transept of Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Stu-
dent Drawing, after Lassus and V.-le-Duc).
16. Flamboyant Balustrade, Chateau of Josselyn (C. U. Stu-
dent Drawing).
17. Early Gothic Balustrade, Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Stu-
dent Drawing).


Plate XVC Gothac Orhamemt. Steuctomal


Plate X¥ML Gothic Ornament. CaiwmsAiemqhi.

cT St. Urtxun. Troves


XIX. Gothic Ornament, Stained Glass
1. Border, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Prang).
2. Border, Jesse Window in Chartres Cathedral (H. W.
Miller).
3,4. Figures from Chartres Jesse Window (H. W. Miller).
5. Border, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Author, after Owen
Jones).
6. Grisaille, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Owen Jones).
7. Border, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Owen Jones).
8. Border, Window in York Cathedral (Owen Jones).
9. Border from Window in Church of St. Thomas, Strass-
burg (Author, after Owen Jones).
10. Window Detail from St. Denis (Prang).


Plate ML GmMKOMMAHEn BtamQuss

5Border.Bourges 9 3t Thomas Church. Strassbung 10 5t Denis-E3rfyXB?'C


XX. Gothic Ornament; Painted, Ceramic and
MSS. Decoration
1. Painted Molding, Ely Cathedral.
2. Painted Knriched Molding, Beverley Cathedral.
3,4. Painted Decorations from Brunswick Cathedral.
5. Painted Decoration from Reims Cathedral.
C. Painted Decoration, Salisbury Cathedral.
7. Painted Decoration, Winchester Cathedral.
8, 12. Tile Units from French Churches.
9. Painted Decoration from Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse.
10. Painted Decoration from Ranworth Church, Norfolk.
11. Prom West Walton Church, Norfolk.
13. French Tiling, XHIth Century.
11, 16, 17, 19-24. Ornaments from Manuscripts of the Xllth and
XHIth Centuries.
15, 18. Borders from Manuscripts of XlVth and XVth Centuries.
Of the above illustrations, Nos. 1 to 7 inclusive and 9, 10, 11 are
from Prang's "Plates of Historic Ornament-" by permission, Nos.
8 and 12 to 24 inclusive are from Owen Jones, "Grammar of Orna-
ment."


XXI. English Gothic Ornament
1. One Bay, Salisbury Cathedral.
2. One Bay, Choir of Lincoln Cathedral.
3. One Bay, Lichfield Cathedral, Nave.
4. Detail from King's College Chapel, Cambridge.
5. Perpendicular Wall Tracery.
6. Lancet Windows, Warmington Church.
7. Plate Tracery, Carlisle Cathedral.
8. Geometric Tracery, Rippington Church.
9. Geometric Tracery, Chapter House, York Cathedral.
10. Curvilinear Tracery, St. Michael's, Warfield.
11. Perpendicular Tracery, Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick.
12. Curvilinear Tracery, Oxford Cathedral.
13. Transept Rose, Westminster Abbey.
14. Capital from Lincoln Cathedral: Early English.
15. Capital from Beverley Cathedral: Decorated.
16. Cresting Ornament, Arundel Church: Perpendicular.
17. "Decorated" Finial.
18. "Decorated" Crocket.
10. "Decorated" Capital, Beverley Cathedral.
20. Carving from Trull Church.
21. One unit of a Diaper Decoration.
22. A "Perpendicular" Doorway and Door Paneling.
Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are reproduced by permission from the Au-
thor's drawings in Van Rensselaer's "English Cathedrals" (The
Century Co.). No. 4 is from part of an illustration in Simpson's
"A History of Architectural Development" (Longmans); 5 is from
Speltz, by permission; 6-11 are by the author; 12-15 are from
Gwilt's "Encyclopedia"; 17, 18 by the author after Speltz; 20-22 are
from drawings by Columbia students, from unidentified sources.





XXII. Italian Gothic Ornament
1. Detail, Portal of Cathedral of Messina.
2. Open Tracery, Venetian Style.
3. Central Doorway, Cathedral of Messina.
4-. Traceried Window, from a Town Hall.
5. Twisted Columns, from Niche in Facade of Church of Or
San Michele, Florence.
6. Detail from Upper Story of Campanile, Florence.
7. Porch of Cathedral of Amalfi.
8. Gothic Detail in Terra-Cotta, Bologna.
0. Capital, Lower Arcade of Doge's Palace, Venice.
All the above illustrations are from photographs or photographic
prints except 9, which is from a student's drawing. Nos. 1, 3 and
7 are from photo prints published in the magazine Stone, reproduced
here by permission.








INDEX


INDEX
A
Aachen, Palatine Chapel, 369
Acanthus: in Byzantine O., 211,
216; in French Romanesque O.,
252, 255; in Greek O., 98, 120; in
Italian Gothic, 379; in Roman O.,
152
/Egean Culture and art, 73 aq.
Ahuri-Mazda, 70, 71
Aizanoi, 115, 125
Alaska, 21; Totem Poles, 22
Alby, Cathedral, 312, 370
Alexandria, 158, 185
Alexandrian and Apulian Pottery,
108
Altenburg, 370
American Indians, 28
"Museum of Natural His-
tory, 28 not*
M Ornament, Primitive, 27
Amiens Cathedral, 263, 311, 338, 341,
342, 374
"Triptych in Library, 338
Angel Choir, Lincoln Cath., 311, 357
Anglo-Norman: Anthemions, 269;
Arches, Corbels, Doorways, Mold-
ings, 267; Carved Ornament, 269;
Fonts and Metal Work, 270; Or-
nament in General, 266; Painted
Decoration, 269
Angouleme, 257
Animal Forms in Egyptian O., 44
Animism in Primitive O., 21
Anthemion in Anglo-Norman O.,
269; in Byzantine O., 215, 216; in
French Romanesque O., 269; in
German O., 274; in Greek O., 104,
118, 119; Greek Types of, 105; in
Roman O., 155
Antioch, Golden Church at, 232
Applied ornament defined, 7
Apollo Temple, Didyme, 114; Phig-
alaea (Basse), 120
Apulian pottery, 99, 100, 108, 244
Ara Coeli (Santa Maria in), Rome,
200
Arcatures, 255, 269
Arch: of Constantine, 148; of Ha-
drian at Athens, 125; of Titus,
136, 156
Arches: Anglo-Norman, 267; French
Romanesque, 258; Gothic, 288
Architectural Ceramics: Greek, 109;
Etruscan, 130; Pompeiian, 130
Architectural Motives in Greek O., 97
Architectural Ornament: Denned, 7;
Byzantine, 208; Early Christian,
192; Egyptian, 38, 49, 52; Gothic
in General, 284; Greek, 110; Pom-
peiian, 172; Roman, 136; Roman-
esque, in General, 251
Aries, 307; St. Trophime at, 262
Armenia, 207, 221; Ornament of, 232
Artemision (Temple) at Ephesus,
114
Asia Minor, 65, 66, 111, 112, 114,116,
140, 158, 163, 206
Assist, 384
Assyrian: Lotus, 58, 59; Ornament,
Origins and Methods of, 57; Sa-
cred Tree, 36, 60, 84; Stepped
Parapet, 70; Volutes, 60, 61
Athens, 99,115,119, 121, 125
Aulnay, St. Pierre at, 261
Auvergne, 251
Avallon, 255
Avila, 276
B
Baalbek, 137
Babylon, 57; Gate of Ishtar at, 64


INDEX
Balawat Gates, 64
Bale Cathedral, 311
Balustrades, Gothic, 896
Bamberg, 227
Baptistery: Florence, 243; of S.
Stefano at Bologna, 340
Barcelona, 276
Barfreston Church, 269
Bases: Gothic, 287; Greek, 114, 115;
Roman, 143; Romanesque, 251
Basilican Ornament, 187 sq.
Basilicas, Christian: Sant' Agnese,
195; San Apollinare at Ravenna,
198, 220, 223, 225; Ara Coeli, 200;
San Clemente, 195, 198; St. John
Lateran, 198, 200; San Lorenzo
fuori le Mura, 200; San Marco,
Rome, 195,198; Santa Maria Mag-
giore, 193, 201; Santa Maria in
Trastevere, 195,196; St. Paul with-
out the Walls (San Paolo fuori le
Mura), 193; St Peter, 193; Santa
Prassede, 198; Santa Pudenziana,
198; Santa Sabina, 198
Basilicas, Pagan: iEmilia, 144; Julia,
163
Basse (Phigahea), 130
Basketry, 22, 27, 28, 78
Baths: of Caracalla, 161; at Pompeii,
161, 178; of Titus, 161, 162
Battle of Issus, Mosaic, 182
"Beau Dieu" of Reims, 311
Beauvais Cathedral, 366
Belgium, 283, 285
Benedictines, 245, 249, 377
Bergen, Golden Chalice at, 279
Biology of Styles, 11
Bologna, Baptistery of S. Stefano,
240
Books Recommended (see end of
each chapter).
Bosnia, Jar from, 28
Bourg-en-Bresse, Brou Church, 311,
338
Bowtels, English Gothic, 359
Brazil, Central, 21
Brou Church, 311, 338
Budmer in Bosnia, Jar from, 28
Byzantine Details: Acanthus, 211,
216; Anthemions, 215, 216; Bands
and Borders, 215; Carving, 212;
Church Furniture, 225; Floors and
Incrustations, 219; Guilloches and
Interlace, 218; Moldings, 215;
Mosaic, 220; MSS. Illumination, 227;
Rinceau, 217; Shafts, 211
Byzantine Influences, 237, 240, 243,
244, 249, 252, 255, 261, 264, 265,
270, 273, 274, 275, 277, 279, 319
Byzantine Ornament, 206 sq.; Archi-
tectural 208; Chief Characteristics
of, 207; Textile, 227
Calabria, 244
Campania, 99, 108
Campanile, Florence, 339, 379
Canopy Windows, 325, 364
Canterbury Cathedral, 329, 362, 364
Capitals: Anglo-Norman, 267; By-
zantine, 210, 211; Egyptian, 50;
Etruscan, 130; Gothic, 283, 286,
333; Greek, 113; from Neandreia,
66; Persian, 68, 70; Pompeiian,
173; Roman, 140-142, 144, 147;
Romanesque, 251, 252, 273
Carolingian Art, 250
Carrenac, Portal of Church, 261
Carved Ornament: Anglo-Norman,
269; Byzantine, 212; English
Gothic, 354; French Gothic, 332;
French Romanesque, 250; Gothic
in General, 332; Greek, 111; Ital-
ian Gothic, 384; Italian Roman-
esque, 240, 245; Roman, 138, 149
sq.
Casa dei Capitelli Colorati, 172
Casa di Livia, 162
Castor and Pollux, Temple of, 141
Cathedrals: Alby, 312, 370; Alten-
burg, 329; Amiens, 262, 311, 338,
341, 342, 345, 366; Bale, 311; Can-
terbury, 329, 362, 364; Chartres,
263, 307, 311, 326, 338, 341, 345,
349; Cologne, 329, 366, 369, 370;
396


INDEX
Romanesque, 262; Gothic in Gen-
eral, 307; Roman, 156
Fiji Islands, 2fr
Finials, Gothic, 297
Flamboyant Period, 253, 283, 331,
336, 360; Tracery, 294, 342, 360
Flanders, 320, 326
Flinders Petrie, 40 note, 44, 49 note
Florence, 240,379,380,384,385; Bap-
tistery of, 243; Campanile, 239,
379; Duomo, 379, 383, 384; Or San
Michele, 383; Santa Maria Novella,
387
Florid Period in Gothic O., 284, 288,
289, 296, 297
"Flowing" Tracery, 346, 360
Foliage: English Gothic, 354; French
Gothic, 332; Gothic in General, 303
Fonts, Anglo-Norman, 270
France, 249, 282, 283, 284, 288, 289,
294, 296, 303, 315, 316, 320, 326,
360, 362, 364, 388
Freiburg Cathedral, 311, 370
French Gothic Ornament: Carving,
332; Figure Sculpture, 337; Foli-
age, 332, Moldings, 333; Painted
Decoration, 349; Rose Windows,
294, 341, 342, 345; Stained Glass,
326, 346; Tracery, 338
French Influence in Spanish Roman-
esque O., 276
French Romanesque Ornament:
Arches, 255; Carving of Bands and
Panels, 250; Classic Influence in,
249, 255; Corbel Tables, 262; Door-
ways, 258; Figure Sculpture, 262;
General Character, 249; Moldings,
257; Ornaments, 261; Painted
Decoratfcn, 263
Fresco, in Pompeiian Art, 177
Fret or Meander: Egyptian, 48;
Greek, 97, 98, 103
Friendly Islands, 25
Frigate Bird, 26
Furniture: Egyptian, 54; Pompeiian,
185
Furniture, Ecclesiastical (see Church
Furniture)
G
Gaddi, 379, 384
Gargoyles, Gothic, 301
Gates: of Balawat, 64; of Ishtar at
Babylon, 64; Lion Gate at My-
cenae, 77
Gelathi, Armenia, 232
General Character of: Byzantine O.,
207; Egyptian O., 38; French Ro-
manesque, O., 249; Greek O., 93
General Survey of Egyptian O., 36
Geometric or Dipylon Pottery, 102,
103
Geometric Motives: in Egyptian O.,
45; in Greek O., 96, 97
Geometric Tracery, 360
Georgian Byzantine Carving, 232
German: Branch Tracery, 370;
Gothic Moldings, 366; Gothic* Or-
nament, General, 366; Minor Arts,
375; Moldings, 370; MSS., 375; Ro-
manesque O., 273; Spires, 285;
Stained Glass, 275, 372; Tracery,
369
Germany, 237, 256, 273, 279, 283, 285,
295, 297, 306, 315, 316, 320, 326,
329, 388
Gernrode, 274
Giotto, 239, 379, 384
Gloucester Cathedral: Candlestick,
271; Cloisters, 363
Golden House of Nero, 161, 162
Goodyear, W. H., 41, 43 note, 44, 49
note, 51 note, 59 note, 107 note
Gothic: Architecture Denned, 282;
Architectural Periods, 283; Balus-
trades, 296; Bases, 286, 287; Capi-
tals, 283, 286, 332; Carving, 303,
332; Crestings, 298; Crockets, 297,
301, 303; Cusping, 295, 342; Dec-
orative Painting, 349, 369, 384;
Figure Sculpture, 307, 337, 356^
Finials, 297; Foliage, 303, 332;
Gargoyles, 301; Minor Architec-
ture, 311; Metal Work, 316; Mold-
ings, 288; MSS. Decoration, 320;
Piers, Shafts and Columns, 285;
Pinnacles, 297; Stained Glass, 324,


INDEX
384; The System, 377; Tracery,
380, 385; Wood and Metal, 387
Italian Romanesque: Carving, 240;
Cosmati Work in, 239; General,
238; Grotesques, 245; Inlay and
Striping, 240; Lombard Style, 244;
MSS., 249; Siculo-Arabic Style,
243; Wheel Windows, 249
Italy, 234, 245, 303, 316, 319, 320,
326, 329, 388
Ivory Carving, Byzantine, 224
Ivory Throne of Maximian, 224
J
"Jachin and Boaz," 82
Java, War Drum Head, 26
Jean Fouquet, 323
Jerusalem, 82, 85
"Jesse Tree" Windows, 325
K
Kahrie Mosque (Mone tes Choras
Church), 222
Kameiros, Rhodes, 86
Karnak, Hypostyle Hall, 43
Kelat Seman, Syria, 232
Knossos, Crete, 73, 74, 75
L
Label or Drip Moldings, English, 359
Lancet Style, 283
Leading Characteristics of Byzan-
tine Ornament, 207
Lichfield Cathedral, 301, 311
Liernes, 290, 362
Limoges Enamels, 224, 264
Lincoln Cathedral: Angel Choir, 311,
357; Circular Windows, 361
Lion Gate, Mycenae, 77
Living Forms in Assyrian Ornament,
62
Loggie of Vatican, 162
Lombard Doorways, 258
Lombard Style, 238; Influence of,
218, 258
Lombards, The, 244
Lombardy, 246
Lotiform Motive, Greek, 106
Lotus: Assyrian, 58, 59; Egyptian,
40-42, 58, 60, 69, 83, 84, 98, 104;
Trilobe Lotus, 41, 42, 60, 78
Louviers, Church of St. Pierre, 345
Lucca, 239; San Guisto at, 240; San
Martino at, 383
Lycian Architecture, 69
Lydia, 65
Lysicrates, Choragic Monument of,
114, 121, 123, 124
M
Maestri Comacini, 245, 303
Maison Carree, Nimes, 144
Mandorla Door, Florence Cathedral,
384
Mangaian Ornament, 21
Manuscript Illumination, 219, 227,
232, 277, 320
Martorana, La, at Palermo, 243
Maximian, Ivory Throne of, 224
Meaning of History of Ornament, 8
Meaux, Cathedral, 342
Medallion Windows, 325
Melos, Melian Pottery and O., 74, 86,
89
Metal Work, Gothic, 316
Method of this History, 15
Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. Y.,
vii, 85, 131, 178 note
Mexican Pottery, 27
Milan Cathedral, 279, 383
Miletus, 114, 122, 123
Minor Architecture, Gothic, 311
Minor Arts, German, 373
Modillion, The Roman, 144
Moissac, 252
Mokheta, Georgia, 232
Molaise Gospels, 272
Molding Ornaments, Gothic, 289, 358
Moldings: Anglo-Norman, 267; By-
zantine, 215; Drip or Label, 359;
Egyptian Torus, 49, 50; English
Gothic, 358; French Gothic, 288,


INDEX
Architecture, 140, 144, 147; Rin-
ceau, 163-155; Stucco Relief, 158,
178; Wall Decoration, 158, 162
Roman Genius, The, 127
Romanesque, English (see Anglo-
Norman)
Romanesque, French (see French
Romanesque)
Romanesque, German (see German
Romanesque)
Romanesque Metal Work, 279
Romanesque Ornament: Italian in
General, 238; Lombard, 244; Tus-
can, 239; Scandinavian, 277; Span-
ish, 276
Romanesque Period, The, 234
Rose Windows: English, 361;
French Gothic, 341, 342, 345, 361
Rosettes: Assyrian, 61; Cretan, 80;
Egyptian, 46; Gothic (Vaulting
Bosses), 290; Greek, 98; Myce-
naean, 78; Persian, 69; Roman,
142, 143, 153
Rosheim, Alsace, 274
Rouen: Cathedral, 261, 345; St.
Maclou, St. Ouen, 345
Rouheiha, Syria, 231, 232
Russian Byzantine Ornament, 232
S
Sacred Tree, Assyrian, 36, 60, 84
Sakkarah, Tombs at, 46
Sainte Chapelle, Paris, 326, 341, 345,
350
Salamanca, 276
Salisbury Cathedral, 329
Salonica, 210
Samoan Islands, 26
San Andrea, Vercelli, 384
San Apollinare Churches at Ra-
venna, 198, 220, 223, 225
San Francesco, Assisi, 384
San Lorenzo fuori, Rome, 200
San Marco, Rome, 195, 198
San Martino, Lucca, 383
San Paolo (see St. Paul)
San Miniato, 201, 240, 243
San Stefano, Bologna, 240
San Vitale, Ravenna, 211, 220
Sant' Anastasia, Verona, 384
Santa Costanza, Rome, 202
Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, Rome,
200
"" Maggiore, Rome, 193,
201
"" Novella, Florence, 387
M " Pomposa, 220
"" in Trastevere, Rome,
195, 196
Santa Prassede, Rome, 198
Santa Sabina, Rome, 195
Sardis, 66
Savage Ornament, Characteristics
of, 25, 29
Saxony, 273
Scaligers, Tombs of the, 382 (ill'n);
Scandinavian Ornament, 277
Scarabaeus in Egyptian Ornament,
44, 54
Sicily, 238, 239, 243, 319
Siculo-Arabic Style, 238, 239, 243
Sidon Sarcophagi, 123, 124
Sienna, 238, 384, 387; Cathedral, 378
Significance of Classifications, 7
Six Propositions on History of O.,
13
Solomon's Temple, 82
Sources and Motives of Egyptian O.,
37
South Sea Islands, 25
Southwark, St. Saviour's, 357
Southwell Chapter House, 289, 306
Spain, 283, 293, 311, 319, 320, 329,
398
Spalato in Dalmatia, 137, 207, 208,
209, 213
Spanish: Chapel of Santa Maria
Novella, Florence, 387; Gothic
Ornament, 373; Romanesque
Style, 276
Sphinx in Egyptian Art, 45
Spirals: iEgean and Pre-Hellenic,
78, 82; Egyptian, 46; Greek, 98;
in Savage Ornament, 28, 30
404


INDEX
St. Ceneri, 264
St. Denis, 255, 325, 341
St. Gilles, near Aries, 255, 307
St John Lateran, Rome, 198, 200
St. Maclou, Rouen, 345
St Mark's, Venice, 195, 207, 212,
223, 224, 279
St Omer, Cathedral, 265
St. Ouen, Rouen, 345
St. Paul without the Walls (San
Paolo fuori le Mura), Rome, 198,
200
St. Paul-Trois-Chateaux, 250
St Pierre, Louviers, 345
St. Saviour's, Southwark, 357
St. Trophime, Aries, 262
St. Urbain, Troyes, 336, 342
Stained Glass, 320, 324; English,
366; French, 346; German, 370
Ste. Radegonde, Poitiers, 264
Stepped Parapet: Assyrian, 59;
Persian, 70
Strassburg, Cathedral, 311, 329, 369,
370
Structural Ornament: Defined, 7;
Gothic, 283
Stucco Relief: Pompeiian, 178;
Roman, 158, 178
Styles: "Biology" of, 11; Historic,
10;-Summary of Sequence of, 15;
Value of Study of, 14
Summary: of Characteristics of
Savage Ornament, 29; of Sequence
of Styles, 15
Sun Disk on Egyptian Buildings,
44
Susa, 64, 67, 68
Swastika: in Cypriote Ornament,
84, 85, 86; in Egyptian O., 48; in
Greek O., 98; in Pompeiian
Mosaics, 181; in Roman O., 164
Syria, 206, 210, 213, 229
Syrian Christian Ornament, 229
System: of Italian Gothic Orna-
ment 377; Roman Decorative, 133
T
Taixnti, Architect of Campanile, 379
Tarragona, 276
Technic Theory of Origins of Orna-
ment 22
Tegernsee, Earliest Stained Glass,
324 note
Temples: of Apollo at Didyme, 114,
115, 122, 124; of ApoUo at Phi-
galaea (Basse), 120; of Castor and
Pollux, Rome, 140; of Egypt, 43,
51; of Erechtheion, Athens, 118,
120, 122; of Faustina, Rome,
140; of Parthenon, Athens, 115,
119, 124; of Zeus, Athens, 121
Textile Ornament: Byzantine, 227;
Gothic, 319
Theories of Origins of Ornament,
20, 22
Tholos: of Atreus, Mycenae, 77; of
Epidauros, 121, 122
Throne of Maximian, 224
Tiercerons, 290, 361
Tiles: Chaldean and Assyrian, 57,
63; Romanesque, 265; Gothic, 319
Tiryns, 74, 75, 77, 78, 92
Titus: Arch of, 136, 156; Baths of,
161
Tombs; of Abbot of Aubazine (ill.),
309; at Doghanlou, 66; of Galla
Placidia, Ravenna, 223; "of
Midas," 65, 66, 68; Persian, 67;
at Sakkarah, 46; of Scaligers,
Verona, 383, 388; on Via Latina,
161
Toscanella, Churches at 249
Totemism, 21
Totem Poles, Alaskan, 22
Totems, New Zealand Female, 24
Toulouse, Capitals in Museum of,
252
Tourmanin, Syria, 231, 232
Tours Cathedral, 326, 345
Tracery, Gothic Window: English,
360; French, 338; German, 369;
Italian, 380, 383; Spanish, 374
Trilobe Lotus, 41, 42, 60, 78
Triptych in Amiens Library, 338
Trocadero Museum, Paris, 264, 342
Troja, 243, 249


INDEX
Troy, 74, 75, 77
Troyes: Cathedral, 334; St. Urbain
at, 334, 342
Tudor Rose, 306
Tuscan Order, 140
Tuscan Romanesque Style, 239
U
Ulm, Minster at, 370
Uraeus (Adder) in Egyptian Orna-
ment, 44
V
Vauje of Study of Styles, 14
Variety in Roman Orders, 144
Vatican Museum, 167, 186
Vaulting: English Gothic, 285, 361;
German, 293; Gothic in General,
289
Vaults and Ceilings, English, 361
Venice, 207, 210, 219, 223, 380, 383;
Doge's Palace at, 383; St. Mark's
at, 195, 207, 223, 231, 238, 282;
Tracery, 380, 383
Vercelli, San Andrea at, 384
Verona, 244, 391, 392
Vignola's Rules for the Orders, 144
Vine in Byzantine Ornament, 106;
in Greek O., 106
Viollet-le-Duc, 303; His Restoration
of Chapels in Notre Dame, 350
Vitruvius, 144
W
Wall Decoration: Byzantine, 219;
Pompeiian, 173; Roman, 158, 162
Wall and Gable Tracery, 295
Wall Mosaic at Warka, 57
Ware, W. R., 211 note
Warka (Erech), 57
Wells Cathedral, 305, 311, 356, 360
Westminster: Abbey, 361; Hall,
364; Henry VII's Chapel, 363
Wheel Windows: French, 294;
Italian, 249
Winchester: Cathedral, 357, 362; St.
Cross at, 269
Window Tracery (see Tracery,
Gothic Window)
Wood Carvings, Gothic, 312
Wood and Metal in Italian Gothic
Art, 387
Woodwork, English, 357, 363
Y
Yogdhasil, 272
York Cathedral, 326, 329, 364
Z
Zamohra, 276
Zigzags: Anglo-Norman, 267; Egyp-
tian, 45; French, 261; German,
274; Savage, 24, 30
Zufli Pottery, 27
406